Lunar New Year Celebrations
To celebrate the 2022 Lunar New Year of the Tiger the new and International Student Prefect (NaIP) Team, Leia, George and Jasmine and the International Student Council (ISC) members continued the tradition and organised some delicious handmade dumplings for students and staff to enjoy at both The Ridgeway Campus and at the Swimming Carnival. The NaIP Team and ISC members have nominated that all proceeds will be donated to the Ukrainian Children’s Fund.
Student reflections about what Lunar New Year means to them and a little about some traditional family celebrations.
What does Lunar New Year mean to you?
Lunar new year means a clean, fresh new start for me!
It basically just means red pockets, which leads to money, that’s it!
For me, it means to have reunions, and intend to usher in a year of luck and prosperity. Also, I think this is a festival that represents the gathering of families, especially for overseas students like me, which lets me miss my home and families much more at this festival. In addition, Lunar New Year is also a symbol of a new start for me, which means ring out the old year and ring in the new year.
What celebrations occur in your home country?
Marked by red packets, fireworks, food and drink, Lunar New Year is when Chinese families get together and celebrate. Homes and streets are often decked out with red decorations such as banners, lanterns and ornaments. In addition, the elderly will also give children red pockets for best wishes. Meanwhile, for several days starting on New Year’s Eve, people watch the spring festival gala with their families and indulge in food with symbolic meaning such as dumplings, buns and so on, either based on appearance or word association.
In old times, people often watched CCTV New Year’s Gala, which is a national show especially made for the New Year. It used to be a tradition that everyone in the household sat and watched the show together. Why did I state, ‘used to be’? A few reasons. Nowadays, with the developments of mobile phones and other technology, more young people prefer to watch the ‘Gala’ on the phone through some livestream platforms. Also, more and more platforms have developed their own show. For example, bilibili has developed a great new year show and is has spread among young people really fast to attract a lot of attention. Also, the CCTV New Year’s Gala is getting less interesting than before. Personally, I didn’t watch the show this year. One thing is the time zone, the other is I am getting bored of that.
Another celebration is to have a big dinner together. When I was in China, my family often went to my grandmother’s home to have dinner. The dinner doesn’t necessarily have to be a big, fancy dinner, maybe just the atmosphere.
There are a few other things too, like pasting red antithetical couplets, receiving the red pockets, getting new clothes (in old days) and getting gifts (in modern days).
