Nguyen and I are spend our Lunar New Year’s Eve hanging out at my house in Sacramento. He barely over and already eaten some quail, sauteed mushrooms, banh chung, goi (papaya salad?), and soup. Oh can’t forget them shrimp egg rolls! After this light meal we decided to get slurpees, wells just myself, and some ice cream and chips. On the drive to the store and back, we decided to write a blog about our thoughts on this special weekend.
Every year in Sacramento there are two big festivals. Hoi Cho Tet is a huge festival that celebrates Lunar New Year’s each year, but there is usually two of them. The one I am familiar with is the one on Florin Road and Stock Boulevard. Nguyen is more familiar with the one that is organized at his temple. But tomorrow, Nguyen plans on going to the one I go to so I don’t feel like a loner.
On a side note: tomorrow is also Valentine’s Day. But since we are both single, non-compatible males, we have no one special to spend the day with, so we are pretty much going to hang out with each other at the festival.
We are more excited about Lunar New Year’s instead of Valentine’s Day because of the cultural importance that day is to us. Rather than spending the entire day with just one person, we spend this special day with our family and relatives (day 1). Lunar New Year’s celebration is an event that lasts a week in our culture. Unfortunately, we have school and our parents have work so we try to squeeze all the celebration within a few days.
As for the celebration, we normally would spend the day before New Year’s cleaning out the house. The whole family would help out because it is believed that we should have a clean home in order to welcome the new year. We also believe that it will help bring good fortune. For my family, we usually cook our big dinner the day before because we usually spend the day of doing festivities. Nguyen’s family does the opposite, they enjoy festivities the day before and then cook the big dinner the day of. When we cook the food, we usually leave them out on a table next to the altar as a tribute to the spirits of our ancestors. And then hours later we would eat the food, regardless of how cold the food may have become.
Now for the best part of Lunar New Year’s, the red envelopes. We call it “Li Xi” and our eyes glow when we see our relatives pulling one out of their pocket or purse for us. Typically, to receive a li xi, the younger generation would greet older generation with blessings of good fortune and health. If they do so correctly, they receive money. Most of the time we receive the money regardless of how we greet our relatives. I for one receive money without even saying a single word, that’s how cool I am.
So to sum it all up, Lunar New Year’s is probably the one time of the year we actually spend quality time with our family. Unfortunately, Nguyen decided to spend the day before at my house, eating my food and ice cream. Well, we both would wish you all a Happy Lunar New Year’s Day, Chúc Mừng Năm Mới, and Gong Hay Phat Choi, and a whole lot of other languages we don’t happen to know.
On behalf of each of us, we thank you for reading our blog.
-Duy Truong