When I was a young kid, I always longed for the Lunar New Year to come sooner, because that’s the best holiday ever, although I loved Mid-Autumn festival and the Dragon Boat festival too.

I remember nearing the new year time, we customarily have a thorough house cleaning, shop necessary items for the festival, my dad would always take us to get a new set of clothes and a pair of new shoes for the new year, and fireworks were a must to have. On the New Year’s Eve, my brother and I would mostly be very busy tying the tangerines with garlic plants and a red pocket together and hung them in the place where we honored our ancestors. My brother was in charge of putting the couplets up, I helped my mom with whatever she needed to be done, and we would go honor our ancestors and spirits together, my dad would get some sugar cane for the house, then we had Tangyuan together for lunch.  Oh, one tradition was that we must take our showers early, a lot earlier than usual. It says it’s for good luck. After all the late afternoon honoring, we had a feast for dinner. After dinner, mom would be busy making deserts, dim sum, and all kind of festive foods, we kids helped, and dad would take care of the cooking. After all the obligatory work, we would have fireworks on our balcony to finish off our day. Another tradition is that my dad would always wait till midnight, twelve sharp to fire his firecrackers. Actually, everyone in the village did that at the same time, so we would hear the firecrackers went off harmoniously.

The first day of the new year, we would always be greeted by the sound of the firecrackers. We would put on our new clothes and new shoes. Dad would go to our room and gave us red pockets the first thing in the morning, he would also sometimes give us on the New Year’s Eve. Mom always busy cooking or honoring, and we helped whenever mom needed us. The best thing was that we could snacked on all sorts of festive food all day long in front of the TV or could go to cheer for the county competition games, or even go to check out new year activities.

If my memory serves me right, the second day we eat vegetarian or vegan meals for the day. The third day, we would have many guests come over for visits. As a kid, we loved it, because we not only could receive red pockets, but also, we got to enjoy different foods from the guests. We would go visit relatives as well, and of course, we loved generating more money.

As we got older, a lot of traditions were fading. I wish I had learned how to cook, how to make festive food, and how to prepare for the new year. Oh well, probably it’s fate, I haven’t celebrated Chinese New Year for years, because I don’t know how. How ironic! I need to go to visit my parents and brother someday to experience the Chinese New Year again.