Author Archives: Jennifer Chen

Red Envelopes for Travelers

MATERIAL

 

如果家里有人出远门时，长辈们常常会送一个红包，里边除了有钱之外，还要包进去一些松柏叶、红花瓣等。松柏叶代表着“常青”，表示永远存在；红花瓣代表红火，表示运气好。这代表着长辈们对远行的家人的一种美好祝愿。

 

Before a family member takes a trip, the elders in the family will often give the traveler a red envelope. Inside, in addition to money, the package will also contain pine needles and red flower petals. This wishes the traveler safety and success.

 

ANALYSIS

 

My informant’s extended family lives in China and she remembers this tradition from when she would return to China with her immediate family to visit. Her family that lives in China would always give her and her younger sister each a red envelope with money, pine needles, and red flower petals inside. The red envelope symbolizes a wish of success, prosperity, and happiness on the trip. The pine needles are symbolic because evergreens are said to live forever, so the needles represent a blessing of a safe, accident-free trip. The red flower petals involve, again, the color red. The whole package represents basically a good luck wish for the trip. The informant remembers her parents telling her and her sister that they must keep the red envelope with them throughout the duration of the trip so keep them safe. It always made my informant feel safer having it because she really believed it would keep her from harm.

Lantern Festival

MATERIAL

 

农历正月十五是“元宵节”，又称“花灯节”，很多地方会举办“灯会”，各种各样的灯笼，里面点上蜡烛或电灯，聚集在一起，很是漂亮；大家要吃“元宵”，又称“汤团”来表示生活的美满。过完元宵节，春节就算是过完了，大家又要开始正常的生活。

 

15 days after the Lunar New Year, there is New Year Festival known as the Lantern Festival. Traditionally, everyone would make a variety of red lanterns, candles, and lamps. Everyone would hold them and play and congregate in the streets. Now, there are usually parades in the streets that have floats decorated in red and with lanterns all over them. The Lantern Festival symbolizes the end of the Spring Festival, and signifies to everyone to resume normal life again.

 

ANALYSIS

 

The Lunar New Year, also known as the Spring Festival, is the biggest and most celebrated traditional Chinese holiday. 15 days after the first day of the lunar calendar, there is another festival known as the Lantern Festival. These lanterns are usually red, which is the most important color in Chinese culture. It symbolizes prosperity, good luck, wealth, and happiness. It is used in almost every big holiday or tradition. In older days, everyone would make the lanterns and candles and come together in the streets to interact with each other. It was a time for all the children to have a free play day and a time for the adults to have some time to talk amongst one another. It symbolizes the end of the Spring Festival. The light from lanterns and candles is supposed to light up the sky, to let the heavens know the festival is over but that China is still as one, praying for the Gods to bless the New Year. It is a last hurrah for the two weeks that the Spring Festival lasts. It lets everyone know that it is time to resume normal life. Firecrackers are sometimes set off as well, to alert the Gods and ancestors that everyone will be returning to school and work, but asking them to keep blessing everyone on Earth with the good luck of the New Year. My informant remembers visiting China once for the duration of the Spring Festival when she was very young and she thought it was a magical time.

Dragon Boat Festival

MATERIAL

 

每年的五月初五是“端午节”，这一天的主要活动是吃粽子，赛龙舟，挂菖蒲，喝雄黄酒等。吃粽子和赛龙舟源于纪念古代爱国诗人屈原。屈原因为愤恨当时腐败的政府而投江自尽，人民爱戴他，不想看到他真的死去，所有大家划龙舟去追赶他；又把粽子投到江中，希望水里的鱼吃粽子而不去吃他。挂菖蒲和喝雄黄酒是为了辟邪。

 

On the fifth day of the lunar calendar, there is the Dragon Boat Festival. The main activities of this day include eating zongzi (a traditional Chinese food made of glutinous rice and filled with different fillings such as eggs and meat), dragon boat racing, hanging a special plant, and drinking special wine. Eating zongzi and dragon boat racing is to celebrate the memory of the ancient Chinese poet Qu Yuan. Qu Yuan resented the corrupt Chinese government and so jumped into the river to commit suicide. However, the people really loved him and did not want to see him die, so they raced boats out onto the river to try to rescue him. They threw zongzi into the river in hopes that the fish would eat them instead of the body of Qu Yuan. Hanging the special plant and drinking the special wine is to ward off evil spirits.

 

ANALYSIS

 

My informant did a great job in explaining the symbolism of the different aspects of the Dragon Boat Festival in her retelling of the tradition to me. She grew up in America, but her family still makes zongzi during the Spring Festival to pay homage to the tradition. Although she had visited China once and observed the dragon boat racing tradition, she was very young and barely remembers it. She would like to go back to see it again. However, growing up, her mom had always told her the story of Qu Yuan, so eating zongzi always reminds her of his story and of the reason why zongzi and dragon boat racing is so important to the Spring Festival holiday season.

Birthday Noodles

MATERIAL

 

每年生日时，要吃“长寿面”，一般是一碗面条上加两个不打散的鸡蛋，长长的面条表示长寿，圆圆的鸡蛋表示圆满幸福。

 

Every year on your birthday, you eat a bowl of noodles roughly translated to “longevity noodles”. This is a bowl of noodle soup with two poached eggs on top. The long noodles symbolize living a long life and the round eggs are a play on words in Chinese. Roundness is also taken to mean full, so the eggs symbolize a full and happy life.

 

ANALYSIS

 

My informant grew up in California and has lived her all of her life. However, her grandma, who grew up in China, lives with her family and has imposed some Chinese traditions. One tradition my informant vividly remembers and celebrates to this day is eating noodles on her birthday. The noodles, long like spaghetti, represent living a long, healthy life and the round eggs, in the Chinese language, symbolize living a full and happy life. It is basically a wish of well being for the future and the new age.

Claddagh Ring

MATERIAL

 

“A Claddagh is a traditional Irish ring. It has two hands holding a heart with a crown on top of the heart. The hands represent friendship, the heart represents love, the crown represents loyalty. People wear it on their finger and if you are in a relationship, you wear it so that the point of the heart faces towards your wrist. This points towards the main vein in your arm that leads to your heart. If you are single, you wear the ring the opposite way. It is bad luck if you buy it for yourself and it’s supposed to be given to you by someone who will love you forever, so a very serious significant other or a parent.”

 

ANALYSIS

 

My informant was given a Claddagh ring by her grandma when she turned 13 years old. Her older sister and younger sister were both given Claddagh rings when they turned 13 as well. It is a family tradition that has been passed down for ages. When a daughter turns 13 years old, the grandmother will give her a ring. It represents everlasting love and is supposed to remind the daughter that no matter what trials and tribulations love puts her through as she grows up, she will always have the love of her family.