Imagine that it is New Year’s Day and everybody are celebrating the New Year with huge fun and enjoyment in China. I was so excited to earn red envelops money when I was a child. The happiest moment of the Chinese New Year is the lucky money because parents and relatives give children gifts of money in red envelopes that symbolize happiness in the coming year. However, I have received less money from red envelops since I came to United States because I have fewer relatives here. As a result, Chinese New Year celebrations are not as meaningful as before.
The Eve of the New Year should b
e the busiest and most exciting part of the event. It is customary that every corner of the house must be swept and cleaned in preparation for the New Year and people paint the house red. The red papers written in black ink are put on the walls. These short poems are expressions of good wishes for the family in the coming year. However, nothing is the same since I came to United States. I noticed that decorating the house for the New Year has been simplified. It is hard for me to find the red papers written in black ink to put on the walls. In addition, I found it is impossible for me to take a day off in order to cleaned and paint the house on the Eve of the New Year in U.S.
In addition, the Chinese New Year’s Eve gathering should be the most important family occasion of the year. It is common that the New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day celebrations were strictly family affairs. The significant custom is to spend the New Year’s Eve preparing and eating Chinese dumplings. All members of the family normally gather for the important family meal on the New Year’s Eve. Children are supposed to return their families if they work far away. After the dinner, all family members will gather to stay awake all night. Even though I felt excited when gathering with my family for a dinner on the Chinese New Year’s Eve in U.S, I couldn’t find any word to describe the atmosphere. Disappointedly, each member in my family has to rush at dinner and cannot stay awake all night because they need to work on the early morning next day.
Finally, the entire first week of the Chinese New Year should be the time for socializing and amusement. It’s customary that everyone puts on new clothes and goes to eat dim sum on New Year’s Day. Starting from the second day, people began going out to visit friends and relatives. On the streets, there are numerous lion dances. People take part in a great parade. However, the socializing was not in my expectation when I came to U.S. Even though I can go to Chinatown eat dim sum on New Year’s Day, I couldn’t stay there for a long time. I had to do everything quickly because I needed to go to school and work. In addition, as a Chinese person in this country I do not have a week to celebrate, because I could not take a week off from work at that time for social visits. Therefore, many of the enjoyable activities have been adapted for the evening or the weekends.
Although the U.S version of the Chinese New Year festival tries to be authentic, the celebrations have been simplified. Thus, I felt that the celebrations of the Chinese New Year were meaningless when I stood on this new land. Suddenly, I want to enjoy the Chinese New Year once again. I missed the celebration of New Year in China. When I went to bed that night, I thought about the changes I would have to adapt to. Now I realized that living in United Stated will be very challenging and that I will make a special effort to adapt in this new land.
I remember when I was a little girl, chinese new year is my favourite holiday. On that day that week I will recieve a lot of red envelops. I miss the chinese new year also. we gathering all the family members to have a large dinner. It was my most memorable hoilday.
ReplyDeleteyes, I think so. Because during the chinese new year, people have to work. Even though in chinese new year, nobody can get off their work. The reason of all of these is we have to live in U.S.A.
ReplyDeleteThe Spring Festival that we have spent in China really remind us of many happy memories. But here is America, we have to adapt to the new environment. The only thing that we can do is keep the good memories in my mind.
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