We celebrated Chinese New Year every year when we were growing up. Each time the lunar holiday came around, we would help our dad clean the house, prepare food to offer our ancestors, and follow suit in the traditions, prayers, and routines. We knew it was important, but we never understood the weight of what it actually meant to him. As American kids, we would get electrified about Christmas time, but we didn't have the same enthusiasm for something that was so important to our family.
"New Year was always my favorite. It was the biggest holiday. All the preparation, the markets...you can see it on people’s faces, the New Year is coming. My cousins would come to visit. We were all very close, we got a lot of envelopes and a lot of money. We always played games. So many things to do, firecrackers, fireworks, we got to go out of town to the countryside, eat at fancy restaurants, see a different side of town. It was the only time my parents closed their store for vacation. My brother would take me to the mountains. I was so little I couldn’t go the mountains [usually], and I loved the mountains."
Chinese New Year brings out a spirit in people just like Christmas does. Everyone looks forward to spending time with family that aren't seen often. Hometowns, markets, and streets seem brighter. Special recipes are broken out and prepared over the course of weeks before the kitchen is set to rest.
"The Chinese they have many spirits that need to rest. We celebrate with them, pay respects to Earth, to heaven, and to the spirits of your ancestors. It’s a day where you appreciate and give thank thanks for the above and below and everything you have around you—even to the kitchen that you cook in. You give the kitchen a rest. You have a little ceremony, or a service for the kitchen saying, 'Hey, I’ll give you a break because you’ve been serving us for 365 days. Now it’s time to give you a break. So I won’t cook anymore for so many days.'"
And, if you're like our dad, the rebellious youngster in you comes out.
"[On Chinese New Year] I could get into trouble without getting in trouble. I could do anything I wanted! I could smoke in front of my parents, drink beer, nobody said a thing to me, it was my free pass to do anything I wanted to do. We were six, seven years old, and we could drink beer and smoke cigarettes.
"I remember we said we weren’t strong enough, so we would stick cigarette ash into our beer to make us stronger. Back then, soda wasn't a regular thing. Back then it was a holiday tradition, it was the only time you could drink soda. So my parents would get all the soft drinks you can drink, and I would mix all of them together. Root beer, Coke, 7Up—you know anything—Sunkist, and mix them all together and make my own drink."
When my sister and I think about our parents and their childhood, it's so heavily clouded by the enormity of their struggles. We forget, and have now been reminded that they were just that—kids. It's incredibly touching to us to hear about a happier time, when things were a little more carefree and my dad could be just a kid, before the war was right on their doorstep.
"I had a good childhood, I think. Up until I was about 14...and recently my life has been much easier, but 14 years old on...it was hard. My life had changed a lot. I didn’t have a good life anymore. I was in prison, and then had to go out and make a living, help the family with responsibilities. No more friends, things like that. Making money and responsibilities."
Coming to the United States completely changed how our dad celebrated Chinese New Year. The struggle of adapting to a new home and starting over took some of the joy out of celebrations. That hometown, family feel was lost, and all that remained when the spirit was lost was the tradition that was passed down to us.
"We celebrated every year, but not the way we celebrated when we were little. I guess my last Chinese New Year, when we were really into it, was 1976 or 1977. Of course before 1975 was much better, but since we left our hometown, we were in survival mode. We came to Virginia and there were no Asians there. When it came to that day, we had family meals and we got the family together, but there was no holiday atmosphere anymore.
"It’s just like Christmas in someplace where there are no Christians. No one recognizes it, so you do your own thing."