Portland Public Schools: Lunar New Year Celebrations In The U.S.

Portland OR

01 February, 2022

1:17 AM

Description

Press release from Portland Public Schools: January 31, 2022 The Lunar New Year is coming up and the PPS Language Access Services Team shares some reflections about the importance of this celebration. Chinese Lunar New Year by Yvonne Liao Lunar New Year, known as Chinese New Year, is celebrated around the world.  It is also known as "chun jie", which means "spring festival", or "first day of spring".  Chinese New Year is the most important holiday for Chinese people. It was a time to honor deities as well as ancestors, and it has also become a time to feast and to visit family members and friends.  The Chinese New Year celebrations last about two weeks, from Chinese New Year's Eve through the 15th day of the lunar year.  This year it starts on February 1, and it is the year of the Tiger. The celebration of Chinese New Year varies from different regions.  People clean and decorate the house before New Year's Eve in preparation for the reunion dinner (family dinner on New Year's Eve), pray for luck and prosperity for the coming year, wear new clothes, give red envelopes to the younger generations, watch lion/dragon dances, etc. In Portland, there has been a Chinese New Year celebration at the Oregon Convention Center for the last few years. I always take my children to the Convention Center to celebrate Chinese New Year with the rest of the Chinese community. We are greeted with loud music, cheerful chatter, the smell of warm, comforting Chinese food, and vendors ready to wish you a Happy New Year. On stage there would always be a colorful performance with a crowd of parents sharing the joys of New Years with their children and the elderly admiring the hard work that the community has done to keep the traditions alive! The Chinese community here was not as big as it is today when I first came to Portland many years ago. For my first Chinese New Year in the U.S., we had our family reunion dinner at my grandparent's home and received red envelopes from our grandparents, parents and uncles and aunts. My ESL teacher, Ms. Meyers, took me to a Taiwanese performance. It gave me a glimpse of the different customs and cultures outside of China with their music, dances and clothing. That is why I take my kids to see how the community celebrates New Years as a whole. I want them to know that they have a place in American culture that values their background, language, culture and traditions. Some of the special foods during the celebration include: steamed whole chicken, steam whole fish, rice cake (nian gao), spring roll, fruits, dumplings, noodles, etc. ** Hi! My name is Jessy Li.  The Lunar New Year (Chinese New Year) Festivities were (and still are!) super important to me, not only because I am Chinese, but because it brings a lot of different cultures together to celebrate a holiday we all know and love. The New Year is supposed to bring luck and prosperity. Each year represents one of 12 animals of the Chinese zodiac, and this year is the year of the tiger. The year of the tiger brings fortune to those who were born in 1938, 1950, 1962, 1974, 1986, 1998, 2010, and 2022. Generally (this year being a bit different due to the pandemic), my family and I will celebrate by picking out a new wardrobe, getting a haircut, cleaning the house, and putting up red decorations. The kids receive red envelopes and stay up late, have a large dinner and visit family. This year, CNY is on the 1st of February. Vietnamese Lunar New Year by ThanhHa Nguyen Sitting in the quiet room and counting down how many days left to celebrate the Vietnamese New Year made me think about how many years I have been living in the U.S. I tried to remember how I celebrated my first Lunar New Year in the U.S., when I had many things to adjust to in a new country. I felt sad for missing my first Lunar New Year in the U.S. that day as I went to community college to learn English and hoped someday my life would be better. I believe everything is possible if you try your best. Since that day, my dream has come true of working in the PPS Language Access Services where the school district supports diverse students with different backgrounds, as well as English language learners. This is an opportunity for me to reflect on the Lunar New Year so I can see the signs of the Lunar New Year in my community. This is the time for people to purchase traditional foods like a special chicken, colorful flowers, red envelopes, and fruits to decorate for the first day of the Lunar New Year. In addition, people buy gifts or traditional sticky rice cakes "Bánh Chưng, Bánh Tét" (sticky rice, pork and mung bean) to give to their friends or older people to show their respect and appreciation. Another Lunar New Year is coming and I have lived one more year in the U.S. where many people speak different languages with different cultures and traditions. For me, the Lunar New Year is a time for my family, making traditional food to offer to our ancestors while praying for the health and safety of a New Year. Then we exchange wishes, give our children red envelopes with money inside and wish them success in education. Each element of experience hopefully reminds my children that education is an essential key to open any doors for them in the future and a healthy family is a good place for them to rest and feel safe. Eating traditional Vietnamese food with my children, watching Vietnamese shows together and having them share how they would start to get to their destination for the new year are my favorite activities on the Lunar New Year. Imagining their plans, I see how fast they are growing up as we celebrate the coming Lunar New Year. As an immigrant, I join in special American holidays and really appreciate Thanksgiving Day.  I would encourage people, regardless of language barriers, to celebrate the Lunar New Year by doing something meaningful on that day. They can visit or make calls to their family or close friends wishing them good health and achieving their dreams. The Lunar New Year is more important than ever as COVID-19 has forced us to limit gatherings. No matter how we celebrate it, it is a good occasion to keep in touch with families and friends and look forward to a healthy and happy new year. This press release was produced by Portland Public Schools. The views expressed here are the author's own.