Gong Xi Fa Cai

Chinese New Year (Chun Jie) is the most important festival in the Chinese lunar calendar. Chun Jie means the "spring festival," and based on the almanac of the emperor Han Wu Di (140–87 BCE), it falls on the first day of the first month, which does not correspond to January first of the Western, Gregorian calendar. It is celebrated for fifteen days and culminates at the first full moon of the new year. Before the New Year, Chinese families customarily conduct a thorough spring cleaning of their homes. On New Year's Eve, family members gather for an annual reunion dinner. They offer food to the ancestral tablets, which are believed to embody the spirits of individuals who have produced sons capable of performing ancestral rites. In return for this attention, the ancestors ensure the fertility and prosperity of the lineage. This ritual renews and reaffirms filial ties. After dinner, many people visit local temples to offer prayers.

The most common Chinese ways of saying Happy New Year are Gong Xi Fa Cai (Mandarin) and Gong Hey Fat Choy (Cantonese). Even though the pronunciations are a little different, both are written the same way. Gong Xi is congratulations or respectfully wishing one joy. Fa Cai is to become rich or to make money.Thus, Gong Xi Fa Cai means wishing you to be prosperous in the coming year.

To say happy new year literally: Xin Nian Kuai Le!

THE NEW YEAR THAT NEVER ENDED! In true tradition we celebrated the New Year for two weeks; actually, more than 2 weeks as the New Year began on February 6th (New Year's Eve) and ended on February 21st. We began celebrating on February 2nd with a Chinese New Year party put on by the Westchester Association of Chinese Americans. We were obligated to go as this is the group we have jointly put on a party with the past two years, but decided this year we wanted to focus on children's activities. So Dan's family and our family attended their party and their party planners attended the Families with Children from China party. There were over 800 people at the WACA party but not many activities for children. It began at 5pm and we had dinner, did a couple of crafts, stayed for a little bit of the show and left before Karaoke and Ballroom Dancing. The party went on until midnight.

With Melanie and Emily

Our Little Bunny

Extra special fun was that Dani & Ally were at the party as well, since Dani was playing in the Ge Zheng performance later that evening. Katerina got such a kick out of seeing Dani on stage.

Ally and Dani in the foreground

On February 6th, New Year's Eve, we hung a lantern from the dining table chandelier and put up a hanging we got in China of the 12 animals of the zodiac. On February 7th, we ordered in Chinese food (cheating, I know!) and had a lovely dinner. YaYa and PaPous are still visiting so they enjoyed being part of the fun. Next year I plan to purchase a special broom for Katerina and each year she can sweep out the old year as a tradition and we'll hang up the Good Luck symbols.

On February 9th we had our FCC Lunar New Year party. We had been working since December 15th to pull this together and it was a huge success. We had over 400 people, mostly FCC families, but a good amount from the Organization of Chinese Americans and the Westchester Evergreen Club (Chinese Senior Citizens). We had wonderful workshops; ribbon dancing, magic, lion dance, mahjong, dumpling making, song & culture, fun rooms, and crafts. We had vendor tables, a raffle, great food, a lion dance parade to the auditorium where we then had a 2-hour performance with Chinese folk dancing (adults and kids), Chinese line dancing, magic show, and a Ge Zheng player. It was a tremendous amount of work even with over 70 volunteers. It's funny, but Katerina enjoyed the setup the night before more than the party.

Setup the night before

An exhausted Katerina The Party

Lion Dance Clinic

These are the girls from Katerina's dance class; the class she dropped out of last fall. She really enjoyed seeing the girls on stage. In fact, she seemed to be in awe that they were dancing on stage. She kept saying "There's Emily or there's Katie"

Mother's of Huaxia Chinese School students

On February 10th we had a Chinese New Year celebration at Katerina's pre-school. I read a couple of books on Chinese New Year, Fiona's Mom brought snacks and crafts. We had bubble wrap to make firecracker sounds and I brought in 3 children's lion heads for a "parade" which turned into everyone just trying on the heads for a moment or two. The kids really enjoyed it. Katerina's teacher took pictures and as soon as I get copies, I will upload them.

PICTURES COMING

On February 15th we were supposed to go to Uncle Bobby and Aunt Susie's for a Chinese New Year dinner, but Susie got sick so it was postponed until the following Sunday.

On February 17th, we joined Kryssy and Richard Egnor at the Greenwich Library for a Chinese New Year celebration of performances; Chinese folk dancing, ballet, magic and martial arts.

Wearing the new dress Grandma gave her for Christmas.

On February 23rd we had our dinner at Bobby & Susie's with Aunt Dale and Uncle Lou and Deb. It was so sweet of them to honor Katerina's heritage by having a special family celebration.