Celebrate Chinese New Year, Come On!

February 7, 2008 2:58 PM

The U.S. calendar new year sucked for my sister and me so we'd like to commemorate Chinese New Year today. How can we celebrate the Year of the Rat?

Obviously, we could go eat Chinese food but since this is a year that symbolizes prosperity and some other good things, we'd like to recognize that too...especially the prosperity part. And we're in Phoenix, where the only scheduled Chinese New Year event occurred in January!

posted by notjustfoxybrown to society & culture (7 comments total)

You should check out Phoenix Chinese Week, which has lots of events scheduled this week. Lion dances are always cool.
posted by Staggering Jack at 3:20 PM on February 7

If you want to go to a place to celebrate it, I'd suggest contacting some Chinese churches. They'll have something going on this Saturday.
posted by spec80 at 3:25 PM on February 7

Do you have a nearby Chinese grocery? Buy some red money envelopes and give small amounts of money to your friends/nieces/nephews.

I wonder if a nicer Chinese restaurant would be serving traditional New Year's food, which is symbolic and could be more fun.

This link was fun: I like the idea of a nice "togetherness tray" than you can use in the next week or so.
posted by artifarce at 3:26 PM on February 7

give small amounts of money to your friends/nieces/nephews

my father-in-law always has 1 of the envelopes with a $100 in it. the person who gets that will have better luck during the year, which hardly seems fair since they just got $100 too.

and it's always crisp, new money.
posted by probablysteve at 6:05 PM on February 7

Hey, I realize your question's already been answered, but my family insists on fish and noodles for the new year.

Fish because it's a homonym of 'surplus' in Chinese.

Noodles for longevity.

:) Yes, the Chinese do love puns.
posted by reebear at 7:28 PM on February 7

probablysteve, that's an awesome story. Maybe instead of the $100 GIVING them good luck, it's just an indicator that they ALREADY have good luck. ;)
posted by artifarce at 7:45 PM on February 7

Hey, Chinese New Year lasts for 15 days, so keep celebrating! Make Gau! I recommend Grandma Aileen Leong Chun's recipe towards the bottom of this page.
posted by somanyamys at 10:02 AM on February 8