Chinese New Year Preview

 I love it when it's my turn to host my old friends' lunch.  This time coincided perfectly with Chinese New Year, which starts this Sunday, February 10th.  Live plants are an important aspect of CNY, so I was delighted when I found an absolute profusion of flowers in the day-old buckets at Smith's.  These tulips were $1.99! 

 I also scored a dozen long-stem tulips for me and a half-dozen bouquets of roses to fill the vases I've been saving for just this occasion, from an 80% off sale I hit in November.  (Deals are synonymous with glee for a Dopp) Everyone took home a bouquet of slightly wilted roses.  That's not a very auspicious start to the new year, is it?  At least they brightened up our lunch, and the vases will last forever.

When I was in violin making school, I lived in an apartment building that served as a dorm, The Rainier.  Several of my classmates and neighbors were Chinese, and the rest of us quickly became Sinophiles when we tasted the food they cooked in profusion.  Dumpling parties were common, with everyone working to assemble the meal.  My friends, Yanfu and Yaqing, could make a potsticker with one hand in about three seconds.  (It reminded me of a friend I had in college.  We got together to make a dinner, and her job was to slice and dice a mountain of vegetables.  I swear, before I could count to ten, she had the whole mountain reduced to neat squares.  When I asked her how she did all of that so fast, she said simply, "I'm Chinese."  I always remembered that.  She probably chopped up every meal her whole life, as opposed to unwrapping or microwaving it!)

I put my pals to work folding potstickers while I fried and steamed them.  I forget how efficient seven women are, as opposed to seven kids, even if we're not Chinese!  :)  We knocked out enough dumplings for lunch AND dinner!

 Along with Panda chow mein, veggies, salad and a delicious pie that Marie Callendar made for me, we enjoyed a sunny start to a new year.  At least I think it was sunny.  Who knows?  Maybe it was foggy and cold, but it seemed sunny to me, seated at a happy table with happy friends, the good kind of ice in my Diet Coke and dark chocolate strewn across the table.  This, as I see it, is the recipe for happiness.

1. Here is some general info I copied from the internet about CNY, in case you want to celebrate.  And who doesn't want to celebrate?  The date for Chinese New Year varies from year to year based on the lunar cycle. It always falls sometime in January or February.
   
   
2. The whole holiday actually lasts fifteen days.
   
   
3. The most important day of Chinese New Year is Chinese New Year’s eve and the first day of Chinese New Year – traditionally the day for the Chinese New Year parade. People in Hong Kong will take two or three days off work, in China up to a week.
   
   
4. It’s estimated that a sixth of the world celebrate Chinese New Year, including more than 1 billion Chinese citizens.
   
   
5. Chinese New Year is the world’s largest human migration as Chinese workers travel home to their families.
   
   
6. In 2010 an estimated 210 million hit the planes, buses and trains – the equivalent to the whole population of Brazil packing their suitcases. In China, where much of the migration takes place, it’s been claimed that trains are so overcrowded that people wear diapers for their +24hr journeys home.
   
   
7. The world record for most texts sent in a day is broken each year during Chinese New Year. The current record stands at 19 billion.
   
   
8. Depending on who you listen to, Chinese New Year in 2011 is either 4709, 4708, or 4648 and we still don’t have flying cars or hover skateboards.
   
   
9. Chinese New Year isn’t only celebrated in China. In Vietnam, Singapore and some other Asian countries, they also celebrate the “Lunar New Year” as well as in Chinatows around the world.
   
   
10. Always a country that likes the supersize option, China currently holds the record for the world’s largest organized fireworks display. On Chinese New Year’s eve fireworks are let off all over the city and it’s believed to be the biggest non-organized fireworks display on the planet --- and each year it only gets bigger.Few parties have been going as long as this one; find out about the origins of Chinese New Year, why people let off fireworks and about the monstrous Nian.
    1. It’s believed that the first Chinese New Year celebrations took place at least as far back as the 14th century BC, possibly earlier, making it the world’s longest running, annual party.
    
    2. While the celebrations then would have varied from province to province and village to village, it is in the Han Dynasty(206BC-AD 25) that most of today’s modern celebrations and rituals have their roots.
    
    3. According to legend, the origins of Chinese New Year rest in the battle against the Nian, a nasty and apparently hungry beast that ate livestock and children. Nian is the Chinese word for year.
    
    4. To keep the Nian’s nose out of their chicken coops and cradles, villagers were told to wear red clothes, hang red signs and make lots of noise – three traditions of Chinese New Year.
    
    5. Fireworks and firecrackers are traditional weapons against the Nian and widely used over the holiday.
    
    6. Guo Nian, meaning the ‘passing of the beast’ is a traditional New Year greeting, although Kung Hei Fat Choy (Cantonese) or Gong Xi Fa Cai (Mandarin) meaning may you be prosperous are more common.
    
    7. Far more accurate but far less interesting, the real history behind Chinese New Year lies in the celebration of the end of winter and welcoming spring.
    
    8. The official name of the Chinese New Year holiday in China is actually Spring festival.
    
    9. While Buddhists and Taoists have certain rituals they will follow during Chinese New Year, the celebration is not directly related to either of these religions.
    
    10. The party poopers at China’s communist party headquarters tried to suppress the celebration in the 50’s and 60’s, wary of its ties to Imperial times, superstitions and religion. They failed and by the 80’s everyone was on the firecrackers again.