An Early Start to Spring: Lunar New Year’s Spring Festival Celebrations!

First, the Little New Year or Xiao Nian

We are very fortunate in Canada to be able to enjoy the wonderful traditions of many different cultures that have come to call our country home. Some are celebrated quietly. I’m not sure how many of us thought to enjoy a glass of Scottish whiskey on January 25th – Robbie Burns Day – but perhaps that is now a habit to add to your schedule in honour of Scotland’s contribution to Canada. (Celebrate with whiskey, not haggis. Trust me.) Other traditions are celebrated with great flare, Chinese New Year being one of those. However, what many don’t realize is that Chinese New Year is only one point in the whole Spring Festival season. Native born Canadians will also use the name Chinese New Year to cover all Spring festival celebrations when in fact the Lunar New Year is an important holiday for Korean, Vietnamese, Singaporean, Malaysian, Filipino and Indonesians, as well as Chinese Canadians.

The Spring Festival celebrations have in fact already begun. On January 14th we opened Little New Year where people began to prepare for the Luner New Year. This time is an opportunity for people to express their good wishes, to say goodbye to the old and to welcome the new, also to welcome good fortune and happiness. Traditionally, it stems from the Chinese people's pursuit of the dream of "having enough food and clothing" in years gone by when resources were scarce.

Little New Year" is not "little" at all. From the opening day on, busyness and joy are officially switched into "Spring Festival time" and increased in volume. Children, especially in China, will often begin their holidays at this time. (China’s version of Canada’s March break. The biggest difference being that Chinese people head home, Canadians head to Florida.)

Little New Year or "Xiao Nian", as it is called in Northern China, begins one day before it starts in the South. Fishermen traditionally started one day later than that. (Perhaps as fish represents one of the most important dishes to serve over the festival time, they are considered an “essential service”. Yu and Yu can mean fish and also extra in the Chinese language.) "Xiao Nian" originated from the worship of fire by the ancients and was a sacrificial festival. In the pre-Qin period, the stove sacrifice was one of the "Five Sacrifices". During the Qin and Han Dynasties, the stove sacrifice evolved to the worship of the Kitchen God and this tradition continued through the Wei, Jin, Song Dynasties. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, when the old-fashioned earthen stoves gradually disappeared, the Kitchen God ceremony declined in popularity, and people's belief in the Kitchen God weakened. However, the tradition of celebrating the "Little Year" has been preserved and has become a custom unique to the Chinese nation.

On these days during the Little New Year, people cut paper window grilles, hang door gods and signs of special characters that call for luck, sweep dust, get haircuts, take baths, eat stove sweets, cook glutinous rice balls and dumplings.

After the Little New Year has passed, the Spring Festival, the grandest festival of the year in the hearts of Chinese people, arrives. The flavor and excitement of the New Year is felt in the streets and in the hutongs – the alleys – and gets stronger and stronger as the festival progresses. Just like at their birth home, overseas Chinese celebrate the festival in their new home, sure to have a good dinner with family and friends.

The dates for the New Year shift according to the lunar calendar. This year, New Year’s Eve occurs on February 9th. That is a time when the family comes together to share. They share food, fellowship and “red pockets”. (More about that next week.) February 10th is New Year’s Day this year. Our following article we will give a more detailed history of the next phase of the celebration and add our take on what foods are must haves at the table during the festival.

The Spring Festival time culminates with the Lantern Festival, which will take place on February 24th. In the next few weeks, we’ll talk about the importance of that celebration and provide our thoughts and the experiences of Canadians as they celebrate away from their original or birth home in their new adoptive country.

In the meant time, enjoy.