Key Points
- The colour red and firecrackers are common features during Lunar New Year celebrations
- Not all who celebrate the annual festivity regard red as a lucky and protective shade
- Vietnamese communities celebrate the Year of the Cat rather than the Rabbit
Lunar New Year is a time to farewell the past year and welcome in the new. It is also a time for family to get together and celebrate the arrival of spring in the Northern Hemisphere. Thus, it is also known as the "Spring Festival".
And, although different cultures share the same New Year's Day, people around the world mark the occasion very differently with distinctive traditional practices.
Scaring off evil spirits with a bang
The Chinese mark the festival with red decorations and greeting phrases written on red paper called fai chun (揮春). They also set off firecrackers and fireworks, perform dragon and lion dances, hit gongs and beat drums to symbolise driving away evil spirits, particularly the beast nian.
Chinese mythology says that nian would come out of its hiding place at the beginning of the New Year, to feast on both people and animals. It is said that nian was sensitive to loud noises and fire, and was fearful of the colour red.
In China, people from different regions of the country celebrate the Lunar New Year with distinct traditional foods. In Northern China, families get together and eat dumplings to celebrate the New Year, while in the South, people mark the occasion with rice cakes, deep-fried dumplings and snacks, and sweets such as candied lotus seeds.
Chinese rice cakes and snacks to celebrate Lunar New Year. Credit: Wikimedia/ evelynquek (CC BY 2.0)
Hot pot, ginger duck stew, and wine-cooked chicken soup, which symbolise reunion, are traditional dishes for families in Taiwan. Their other New Year customs include numerous religious rituals and cultural etiquette.
During Lunar New Year celebrations, Chinese people put on red or other brightly coloured clothing, referencing the nian mythology. Some will even put on new clothes from top to bottom, to symbolise welcoming the new year with a fresh start.
Older generations will offer monetary gifts sealed in red envelopes called red packets or lucky money (lai see; 利是) to descendants. In return, traditional etiquette and customs require younger generations to wish their elders a year of happiness, good health and fortune.
Older generations offering descendants red packets during Lunar New Year. Source: Supplied / Supplied - Tet Lunar New Years Festival VIC.
Not everything is red in colour
Celebrations of the Lunar New Year by Koreans can be traced back to the Chinese historical literature "Book of Sui" and "The Old Book of Tang" from the seventh century. As for local Korean historical works, the Lunar New Year celebration was first recorded in the "Memorabilia of the Three Kingdoms" written in the 13th century, when the annual festival was considered one of nine major Korean traditional celebrations in the year.
Unlike many other ethnic communities celebrating Lunar New Year, the colour red does not hold the same significance in Korean culture and is not said to be able to ward off evil spirits or bring good fortune. Thus, people celebrating Lunar New Year in Korea wear clothes of all kinds of colours.
Traditional Korean Hanbok. Source: Pixabay
In addition to sacrificial and worship rituals, the Koreans perform a traditional deep bow called Sebae (세배). The younger generation will pay their respects to senior family members and wish them good luck and a fruitful and prosperous year ahead, in the order of seniority, starting from the eldest in the family.
In return, children receive a gift of money in an envelope. Envelopes can be in any colour as Koreans do not find the colour red lucky.
Koreans offering sacrifice to ancestors and paying respects to each other during Lunar New Year. Credit: Wikimedia/ Korea.net / Korean Culture and Information Service (Jeon Han) (CC BY 2.0)
It consists of broth with thinly sliced rice cakes. The white, circular rice cake slices signify good health and prosperity.
Tteokguk (떡국), or sliced rice cake soup, is a traditional, Korean dish eaten during Lunar New Year celebrations. Credit: Flickr/ Korea.net / Korean Culture and Information Service (Jeon Han) (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)
Like other cultures, Koreans also gather as a family on New Year's Eve for a reunion dinner. Traditional dishes include ogok-bap (오곡밥), or "five-grain rice", as well as tteok (떡), meaning Korean rice cakes, and mandu (만두), which are Korean dumplings.
Is 2023 the Year of the Rabbit or the Cat?
According to the twelve zodiac signs in Vietnamese culture, 2023 is the Year of the Cat, rather than the Rabbit. The first day of the Lunar New Year is called Tết Nguyên Đán.
Ancient legend has it that all animals were invited to compete in a race across a river to determine the order of the zodiac. The sneaky rat tricked the cat, so the cat could not make it to the finishing line.
However, Vietnamese legend goes a little differently. While the cat was tricked, it still managed to find its way across the river, replacing the rabbit to become one of the 12 animals.
The actual reason behind the difference is, however, unverifiable. One theory is that when the Chinese zodiac signs were introduced to Vietnam, it caused some confusion as the Vietnamese pronunciation of the word "rabbit" is similar to that of the word "cat", making the cat one of the 12 zodiac animals.
Another theory says that, due to the warmer weather in Vietnam, rats were a serious pest issue troubling farmers. Since cats are the natural enemy of rats, Vietnamese farmers believed cats could bring prosperous harvests and good weather, and therefore replaced rabbit with cat in their zodiac signs.
Like the Chinese and Koreans, Vietnamese people also offer sacrifices to ancestors during Lunar New Year celebrations, particularly with a "five-fruit tray" (Mâm ngũ quả). It typically includes custard apple, fig, coconut, banyan fruit, and mango, which represent prosperity and endless fortune.
Mâm ngũ quả, the "five-fruit tray". Credit: Wikimedia/ Tran Trong Nhan (Public Domain)
On the night, Vietnamese families also gather for a reunion dinner.
On the first day of the New Year, all families are to offer sacrifices to their ancestors, as well as to worship the Earth god, the Kitchen God, and the Patriarch of All Arts. Sacrifices generally include rice dumplings, roasted fish, meat dumplings, roasted meat, pickled scallions, beef, and other foods.
After the sacrificial offerings, the younger generation will greet their seniors, who offer them "lucky money" in red envelopes in return.
One traditional Vietnamese dish for Lunar New Year is the bánh chưng, a square-shaped rice cake wrapped in banana leaves, usually filled with mung beans and pork.
Bánh chưng, a traditional rice cake in the Vietnamese culture. Credit: Wikimedia/ Viethavvh (CC BY-SA 3.0)
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