Chinese New Year Celebration
by Our 2009 Chinese New Year celebration in Atlanta, GA.
One thing I always looked forward to was the candy tray with all kinds of goodies & sweet treats inside. The candy tray practically is used for holding candies & snacks and it also just looks great for decoration as well. Inside the box there are many dividers, usually it consists of 6 to 8 little compartments. It is like a Japanese Bento Box. It can be in many different shapes, the most common one is round. Each divider holds one kind of snack. Sweet crackers, dried fruit, lotus seeds, watermelon seeds and different kinds of candies will be stocked inside. This red box is used to serve munchies for friends & families coming over during the first week of Chinese New Year holiday. During the first couple weeks of the New Year, we go visit around friends, relatives and families.
All kinds of snacks and yummy treats in this candy tray have to relate to something good and each of them symbolizes the fortune it brings. When I was little, this is one of the joy I used to look forward to during the Chinese New Year. When going around to visit relatives & families, it is fun to find out what each family puts in their candy tray. We get all kinds of goodies in there.
The candy tray usually is red but the color and shape may vary. Red means good luck and good fortune in Chinese culture.
Chinese New Year gets better when we go around visiting relatives and friends, as a kid, we get “Lei Si” (Red Packet) and that is our lucky money.
Our wallets get fat from collecting the Red Packets. This is the kind of fortune and the real “gold” to me!
Since I have started the family, even residing here in Atlanta, I very much wanted to keep the Chinese tradition and to teach my daughters the Chinese cultural activities. We have been going out to this Chinese New Year celebration every year for the past 5 years.
At the Chinese Cultural Center in Atlanta, they usually host a 2-day festival for the Chinese New Year celebration. The festival includes an indoor event taking place inside the Chinese Cultural Center where they have many food stands selling authentic Chinese food. And they also display a lot arts & crafts, some caligraphy demonstration, music and dance performance as well. At the outdoor side, around 12:00 noon, it comes the major performance -the dragon dance and the lion dance right in front of the Chinese Community Center front parking lot.
This year, the Chinese New Year was on Monday, January 26. We went out to the Chinese Community Center to join in the festival on January 31. Below are the Lion Dance and Dragon Dance performances we enjoyed this year. The event was awesome and FUN!!!!!
Below 4 pictures were taken by myself on January 31, 2009 at The Chinese Community Center, Atlanta, GA - I am the copyright holder of these 4 pictures.
Liked it
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
Post CommentTICO
On February 13, 2009 at 12:39 pm
I enjoy your article about the chinese celebration in Atlanta. It was written in a nice and suttle way. Keep up the good work.
Gina
On February 15, 2009 at 6:07 am
Duet, Great job! We have to get back on track with our Chinese New Year celebration. See you soon.
Kenja
On February 15, 2009 at 6:57 am
Great job see you soon keep in touch.
Tasha
On February 15, 2009 at 1:14 pm
Duet, Super Job. You should be very proud of your article, and the pictures were great!
Susan
On February 15, 2009 at 6:14 pm
Duet,Wow, I learned a lot about the Chinese culture! Very informative. I wait with much anticipation for your next article.
Patricia Nieto
On February 15, 2009 at 6:25 pm
Wow…Great Job! It is such a detailed and nice article. Thanks to this I’ am learning and able to see what our tradition is like. Unfortunatelly in Miami we don’t have big Chinesse Community/China Town That organize such great parades. With your amazing description I got a good idea of the Chinese New year. Thanks a lot, keep up the good job! Congratulations.
Ms. Teresa
On February 16, 2009 at 8:00 am
Duet- I loved your article! I am ashamed to say that I had no idea of the importance of this holiday! Now, from your article, I have learned so much! Thank you for sharing this!
Donna Taddeo
On February 17, 2009 at 12:18 pm
Thank you Duet, this was a very interesting and informative article. I would like you hear more about the chinese culture and traditions. Great job.
Star Dust
On February 17, 2009 at 7:33 pm
Thank you all for your feedback and comments. I really appreciate the support. About Chinese culture and traditions, I do feel like I have much more to tell. I will certainly try to write more from now on. I am so glad that I can have this corner to express about my views and to share my stories. Thanks again!
Vanessa
On February 20, 2009 at 12:44 am
I enjoyed the article Duet! Chinese New Year is definetely a rich tradition worth cultivating and enjoying.
Vanessa-
Tío José
On February 21, 2009 at 11:41 am
Very interesting. Good job.
Your tradition of cleaning the house to get rid of all the bad luck and bad things from the previous year reminds me of something I read about the festival of Las Fallas in Valencia, Spain. In medieval times, around Saint Joseph’s Day, the carpenter guilds would clean their shops and have a huge bonfire. This tradition has turned into a huge festival in Valencia where they burn hundreds of floats (called fallas/errors) to symbolize the purification of the city.
R J Evans
On June 19, 2009 at 10:56 am
An interesting look in to the celebrations of part of the diaspora. Thanks for sharing!
sgkeat
On January 30, 2011 at 9:28 am
Gong Xi Fa Cai ! Wan Shi Ru Yi!