Tag Archives: new year

Red Packets

Nationality: Singaporean
Age: 20
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles
Performance Date: April 30, 2013
Primary Language: Chinese
Language: English

“During the Chinese New Year, I’m no sure about elsewhere in Asia, but in Singapore, the Red Packets are given from married people to single people. Red Packets are envelopes filled with money. Single in this case usually means younger folk. So the tradition is that the younger folk have to kneel in front of the older, married people, and say, “gong xi fa cai,” which is basically a congratulations. As they do this, they’re supposed to hand two oranges in outstretched palms facing upwards. You have to hand the orange to the elder respectfully. Then the elder will take the oranges and give you the Red Packed filled with money. It’s basically a favorite time of the year for all kids. You pretty much go family or house hopping during the two days we celebrate the Chinese New Years. Two days for us, and Hong Kong has like two weeks or something. And you collect money.”

 

My informant recollected this tradition with a lot of laughs and good memories. She remembers it as a time when she felt rich as a child with all the envelopes she received from her elders. Now it has a different meaning for her, since it is suppose to be a time for well wishes and respect. I understand this, as I grew up with a similar tradition. I also bowed to my elders and received money. When I was a child, I would be excited to receive the money and spend it on various things. Now, it is different in that I am more hesitant to take the money since I know the hard work that is required o earn the money. Instead, I look forward more to the advice they give. As they hand me envelopes, they usually also give me advice for the new upcoming year, as well as expectations. It is funny to compare what the elders said to me as a child and what they said to me now. Before they would tell me to behave and obey my parents. Now they speak about future spouses and jobs. I’m not sure where the tradition of receiving money for new years came about, but it is a time to show respect to elders through the bowing. You can see the joy on the faces of the elders as they watch their children and grandchildren bow to them, and how they happily give away the packets of money.

You have to wear red on New Year’s because you want to scare away the monster. The monster is scared of red, which is the color of firecrackers.

Nationality: Chinese American
Age: 18
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles
Performance Date: 04/22/12
Primary Language: English
Language: Chinese

The informant is a student at the University of Southern California. She says that she has always performed this piece of folklore ever since she could remember, as her family is Chinese and they participate in the tradition. This belief causes the Chinese to wear red and decorate everything in red. They also set off firecrackers based off of this superstition. She says that this tradition is based off of a Chinese myth where a monster came to attack the villagers a long time ago. To appease the monster, the villagers would offer up food in front of their houses to the monster every year. One year though, they noticed that the monster was scared off by a person wearing red, so the villagers started wearing red and covering the village in red so that the monster would never come back. It is believed that because every year on New Year’s, everybody in the community wears red, the monster doesn’t come back anymore.This folk belief also related to magic superstition, where by participating in the ritual of scaring off the monster by wearing red, one will not have bad luck for the rest of the year. When everybody participates in the ritual, it causes a sense of community as well, strengthening the relationship of the common group that participates in the piece of folklore amongst themselves.

Ritual – German

Nationality: German, Norwegian, French
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: Katy, TX
Performance Date: April 20, 2007
Primary Language: English

Notes:

In order to usher in the New Year the subject’s family eats a meal comprised of sauerkraut, sausage, black-eyed peas at midnight on New Year’s Eve. The meal is supposed to bring good luck throughout the year. The subject identified the traditional meal as uniquely German and that the tradition has been kept up through many generations.

For the subject the meal has become less and less important to her and more of something she feels she has to do in order to not upset her grandmother. However she enjoys the fact that the meal symbolically brings her family together like other occasions (i.e. Christmas, Easter, etc). When asked if she would continue this tradition with her own family she said that it would first be up to her husband and secondly it the continuation of the traditional meal would hinge on if she ever learned how to properly prepare the sauerkraut that is required for the meal.

Black-eyed peas as part of a traditional/ritual meal can also be seen in the Italian culture. The appearance of sauerkraut in the meal, however, makes the meal uniquely German.

Festival – Brazil

Nationality: Brazilian
Age: 18
Occupation: Student
Residence: Brazil
Performance Date: February 15, 2007

In Brazil, the New Years celebration is enormous.  The party to honor the New Year starts before December 31 and ends after January 1.  It is a time to enjoy and commemorate life and make wishes for the New Year.

My friend from school, Isadora told me of the many things her friends and family do for the New Year.  First of all, everyone wears white, white dresses, white pants even white under clothes.  I think that the tradition of wearing white probably represents purity.  For instance, on her wedding day, the bride wears white, to represent her purity in this transition in her life.  By wearing white she can start fresh.  The same is true for the Brazilians.  It is a new year, so they get a fresh start.  They are able to forget any sins that they committed in the last year, therefore, they wear white.

Another thing that the Brazilians wear is a Bracelet called Fitinna do Bomfim.  The bracelets come in all colors, and each color represents something different.  For instance, white represents peace.  The color could represent a hope for the future.  When the Brazilian gets the bracelet they must tie three knots in it.  Then they make a wish, and leave the bracelet on.  When the bracelet falls of, weeks from then, or even months, the wish is suppose to come true.

Another way to make wishes for the future is by going to the beach.  Friends or family will go to the beach together, around the time of midnight.  They have to jump over seven waves, and with each wave they get to make a wish for their future.  Brazil is a Catholic country.  In the catholic religion people are purified by water.  Therefore, the jumping of the waves could be another way of purifying them.

In the end, the New Years celebration for the Brazilians is about purifying themselves so they can have a new start in the New Year.

Tradition – Japan

Nationality: Japanese-American
Age: 20
Occupation: Student
Residence: Oahu, HI
Performance Date: April 16, 2007
Primary Language: Japanese
Language: English

Japanese:

?????

English Pronunciation/Romaji:

Toshikoshi soba

Literal meaning:

Cross year soba eating

Japanese:

????

English Pronuncation/Romaji:

Shimenosoba

Literal meaning:

Conclude the meal with sob

The informant was born in Kanagawa, Japan, a bay area close to Tokyo. He grew up in Hawaii but still retains much of Japanese culture and traditions. One tradition the Japanese practice during New Year is to celebrate the incoming year with ‘soba’, buckwheat noodles. Since noodles are long, they represent longevity. Longevity of family, of marriage, of life and of happiness. Therefore the tradition is termed “Toshikoshi soba”, cross year soba eating.

The second phrase, ‘conclude the meal with soba’ is where the New Year Tradition also takes its roots. It is a phrase with a play on word soba which people associate with closing out the old year and starting a new one. In this case, using soba, or noodles also makes sense because noodles are ‘stringy’ threading together the past and the future.

If one examines this practice histo-geographically, one can see that other Asian cultures also has similar traditions. Perhaps this is a monogenesis phenemenon which originated from one single region a long time ago.