Prepare for Chinese New Year

Chinese New Year is in a week and a half, on January 22nd this year. I love having this second opportunity to mark the new year; this one is my "Happy and Lucky" celebration.

In China a whole month is spent in preparations - cleaning, cooking, and decorating the house. All of the things displayed at Chinese New Year are symbols of the ideal life - tokens and reminders of the good things we hope for: Luck, wealth, long life, and happiness.

Agenda this week:
1. Shopping

2. House cleaning

3. Nian-hua and good-luck calligraphy:

4. Forced Blossoms
5. Make Jiao-zi dumplings
6. Make a Tray of Togetherness

1. Shopping:

Major holidays like the New Year used to be the only times when a Chinese family could enjoy a feeling of abundance, and so even today it is a tradition to splurge by buying an abundance of foods, alcohol, and symbolic items like incense and candles, calendars, flowering plants and paper decorations, red envelopes for gifts for visitors, firecrackers and new clothes. The Chinese believe that abundance at Chinese New Year will carry forward into the next year, so they make sure that their rice bins are full.

I'm making a trip to my local Chinese market today to stock up.

2. Housework:
The first and most important preparation for the Chinese New Year is (surprise!) housecleaning. Families give the house a thorough cleaning before the New Year. In Chinese culture, it’s bad luck for old dust to be left in the New Year, and this month families put everything in order: Scrub floors and cupboards, repaint doors, and trim yards.

I've been cleaning mold and mildew all month, and today I'm going to clean the woodwork in the living room.

3. Nian-hua and good-luck calligraphy:
When the house is clean, I can begin to fill it with the traditional New Year’s decorations. The traditional colors  are red and gold: Gold is the color of wealth and success, and red is the color of good luck and happiness.

My students and I make our own nian-hua showing what we want the new year to bring us (goldfish are symbolic of wealth).

Chinese families love to hang colorful Nian-hua (New Year pictures) all through the house. These are also called "happy and lucky pictures", because they show symbols of the things folks long for in the new year: Good-luck, wealth, long life, and happiness.

Practicing the fu character, for luck.

Before the New Year, the family removes all the old pictures from the walls and buys new pictures to replace them. Some are hand-painted, but most are simple, inexpensive wood block prints.

Beautiful Chinese calligraphy is another traditional decoration at the New Year, especially the fu character, which means luck.

4. Forced Blossoms:

Newly cut branches of forsythia and quince. 

Folks also display flowers, fruits, and plants at Chinese New Year because they are a symbol of nature’s reawakening in the spring. They decorate their homes with heaping platters of tangerines and oranges, and vases filled with beautiful spring flowers.

It’s easy to encourage branches of flowering trees to bloom early. If you plan it carefully, the first blossoms may open on Chinese New Year’s Day, which foretells a year of prosperity for you!

1. Go outside today to look for branches of peach, plum, forsythia, quince, apple, or lilac. Look for branches with many round, fat flower buds (these look different than the longer, thinner leaf buds).

2. Cut the branches and bring them inside. Pound the ends of the branches a bit with a hammer, and put them into a vase filled with lukewarm water.

3. The next day, change the water for cooler water. Put the branches in a cool room, and wait for the buds to open. It will take one to three weeks.

5. Make Jiao-zi dumplings:

These delicious dumplings are prepared ahead of time and frozen, to be to served to guests on New Year’s Day. They symbolize "endless treasure" because they are crescent-shaped like a kind of ancient Chinese money. When you boil them, try not to break them, or you will see your treasure floating away!

Ingredients:

• half a head of Chinese cabbage
• 6 brown mushrooms
• 1 green onion
• 1 tsp. fresh ginger root
• 1 clove of garlic
• 1-Tbsp. sesame oil
• 1/2 Tbsp. soy sauce 
• 1/2 Tbsp. cornstarch
• round dumpling wrappers
• soy sauce and rice vinegar for dipping sauce

1. Mince the Chinese cabbage, mushrooms, green onion, ginger root, and garlic.

2. Combine the vegetables with the sesame oil, soy sauce, and cornstarch. Stir fry to cook until soft.

3. Place a bit of filling in the center of a round dumpling wrapper and fold over into a half-moon. Pinch and pleat the edges together with wet fingers. (Freeze now or cook.)

4. Add oil to a heavy frying pan and heat on medium high. When the pan is hot, stand some of the dumplings upright in the pan, not touching, and add a cup of water. Cover and cook for several minutes.

5. Scoop the dumplings out of the pan and cook the next batch. Serve hot with dipping sauce made of equal parts soy sauce and rice vinegar.

6. Make a Tray of Togetherness:
I went to the Chinese American Family blog to find out how to make a Tray of Togetherness, which is the customary arrangement of sweets used to welcome guests at Chinese New Year.

To make one, you will need a sectional serving platter with 6 - 8 compartments, and a selection of traditional symbolic candies, dried fruits, nuts and other bite-sized treats. "The general notion is that offering guests these sweet nibbles wishes them a sweet life in the year ahead, with each individual item conveying additional hopes for prosperity, longevity and the like. Practically speaking, putting out a Tray of Togetherness is like serving hors d’oeuvres — it’s a helpful social prop to facilitate conversation among friends."

The blog has a long list of possible treats, and their symbolic meaning. I chose (clockwise)- 

• Sesame Balls - Gold and Prosperity
• Candied Winter Melon - Good Health and Longevity
• Dried Kumquats - Gold and Prosperity
• Candied Ginger - Good Health and Longevity
• Candied Lotus Seeds - Fertility and Many Offspring
• Fruit Candies - Sweet Happiness in the Year Ahead

All that’s left is to take the cover off your tray each time you receive guests! Make sure that you keep each compartment filled to the brim, because the point is to convey a sense of prosperity and abundance — it’s bad luck to let your Tray of Togetherness go empty during Chinese New Year.