“Why is Chinese New Year on a different date every year?” - a typical question gweilos always ask me during the Spring Festival. Listen up. Chinese New Year is ALWAYS on the 1st day of the year; just that it is on the Chinese calendar, which is also known as the Lunar Calendar. This calendar is based on the cycles of the moon. The cyclical dating determines the beginning of the New Year. Therefore, the New Year varies every year and usually falls between late January and the mid February on the Gregorian calendar (The one every country follows now). This year will be the year of Rabbit - This explains why there are so many bunny-themed parties coming up in February!

The celebration/preparation for Chinese New Year is long and usually last for almost a month (luckily, for Chinese housewives only – younger generation kids sort of skip most traditions except insisting on getting red packets). Starting from the second half of the last month of the year, some people are already shopping for the festival – Food, new clothes, new home decor and gifts. It is sort of like Christmas. Below are some stories on how Chinese celebrate this festival traditionally and in contemporary Hong Kong. Tips are also given on how to stay hip in the Chinese New Year without falling into (the year of) cliche.

BEFORE THE NEW YEAR

Home decoration and the Flower Market

Traditionally, Chinese families visit the Flower Market on the week before the Chinese New Year for plants and decorative items. Different plants represent different meanings. The most typical one is plum tree and kumquat, which symbolizes good luck and prosperity respectively. Bamboo is used to represent good health while chrysanthemum longevity. For having good luck in love and marriage, get a peach blossom at home. Besides plants, Chinese also post on walls and doors Fai Chuns, calligraphies of New Year greetings written (/printed) on red paper. There are different Flower Markets in different districts in Hong Kong. The biggest one in the city is in Victoria Park. It is also the one that is most packed and populated by expats. In recent years, the Flower Market are selling some funky items. This year - they are even selling merchandises of the world's first 3D porn, 3D Sex And Zen: Extreme Ecstasy!

Delicacy and New Year Eve Dinner

Food plays a very important role in Chinese culture. Therefore, food plays an exceptionally essential role in this big Chinese festival. During the New Year Eve, all wet markets, supermarkets, dried seafood and special delicacy stores in Wing Lok Street in Sheung Wan are packed as people have to prepare for big feasts before and during the new year, especially most wet markets, fresh vegetable and meat suppliers do not open during the Spring Festival.

One of the most important events of this festival is the New Year Eve dinner every family has. It is almost like Chinese Thanks-giving. People who are far away from home usually also try their best to return home for this important day. It is a big feast with fish which symbolizes surplus, chicken, a must-have item for all sorts of Chinese celebrations, lattice, which sounds like “generate wealth” in Cantonese and Tong Yuen, a sweet glutinous rice ball whose roundness symbolizes family unity.

Most families do this at home. Recently, it gets more and more common for families to have their New Year Eve Dinner out. Here are some of the recommendations for you if you want to spend your holiday the local way:

Lin Heung Tea House - the oldest Cantonese restaurant in Hong Kong that promises to serve New Year Eve Dinners the traditional way
http://www.hiphongkong.com/eat/restaurants/budget_meals/lin_heung_tea_house

American Peking Restaurant - As its title suggests, this Chinese restaurant has Beijing fare that appeals to westerners.
[http://www.hiphongkong.com/eat/restaurants/asian_cuisine/american_peking_restaurant_wan_chai]

China Club - Chinese New Year Eve the private and fancy way.
http://www.hiphongkong.com/eat/restaurants/asian_cuisine/china_club_central

Gaia Veggie Shop - Vegetarians should also be able enjoy the savory feast. All dishes sound and look like meat but all ingredients are made by vegetables.
http://www.hiphongkong.com/eat/restaurants/asian_cuisine/gaia_veggie_shop_vegan_vegetarian

New Clothes and Shoes
It is a custom that people wear brand new clothes during the New Year (whoever invented this must have been a textile merchant in Ancient China). Brand new from top to bottom, from outer wear to underwear. Basically, another great excuse to add some more items in your wardrobe. It is a custom that is still welcomed by most young Chinese hipsters. If time is short and money is tight, I must remember getting a new pair of shoes. “Shoe” in Cantonese is pronounced as “highn” (lower tone), which sounds like a sigh. Therefore, it is bad luck to buy new shoes in the first month of the year.

Traditionally, people put on Chinese costumes (of course). And traditionally, people tend to choose red, purple, silvery or golden color for their new clothes as these colors symbolize good fortune. Red underwear is particular popular as it is believed that it brings good luck. If you fancy some traditional Chinese costumes for this special occasion, the following shops may have what you are looking for:

GOD
This funky local designer shop sells cheong-sams, traditional Chinese top with a uniquely Hong Kong twist.
G/F, 48 Hollywood Road, Central, Hong Kong.
2805- 1876
http://www.god.com.hk/index.php

Shanghai Tang
The international luxury has the finest chinese fashion pieces made with the finest materials. You just have to worry about your wallet.
Pedder Building, 12 Pedder Street, Central
2525-7333
http://www.shanghaitang.com/

Ladies Market in Mong Kok
Take an adventure to the Darkside where you will definitely find some of the most typical red and golden dragon-patterned costumes.

Gifts

Chinese New Year is the time you visit your friend and relatives (usually those who only see during this time of the year). You do not go empty-handed (Chinese call it two bundles of bananas because the empty hands look like so). You bring gifts. Nowadays it usually means candies, chocolates or cookies. Two of the most popular items as gifts among Hong Kongers are, interestingly, not Chinese produces (Surprise, surprise …). If you pay attention to commercials enough on the TVB and ATV during Chinese New Year, you may notice them. First, it is the Kjeldsens Cookies. This brand advertises itself as 100% Danish, and it gets so popular here that Hong Kong gets all the stock, leaving none for the Danes. As a joke, every Chinese New Year I post Kjeldsens Cookies (back) to Denmark so my Danish friends can “enjoy” this “local” delicacy. Another famous item is Ferrero Rocher chocolate made in Italy. Similar to Kjeldsens, this brand is more famous overseas that back home. Ferrero Rocher is amazingly popular in Hong Kong for its golden package, a color Chinese people love for it connotes wealth. For the past two decades, Rocher’s TV ads have successfully targeted at local romantics, suggesting the use of chocolate as “flowers” for their loved ones. So don’t be surprised to see people walking around with Rocher bouquets during the Chinese New Year. In fact, I am afraid that my brother will steal all the Rocher chocolate brought by relatives for his girlfriend – another common Chinese New Year practice. We get gifts from one relative and pass it on to another so we don’t have to buy a mountain of Danish cookies and Italian chocolate.

During the New Year

During Chinese New Year, we usually spend time either at home to be visited or doing New-year-visits. On the first day of the year, we are supposed to have vegetarian meal. However, most people usually have only one vegetarian dish, Lohan Veggies, so they can be “vegetarian” symbolically. In my family, for example, always serve fish and chicken on this day.

After the morning meal, my parents give us Lai Sees, a red packet with money in it. Lai Sees are given out during Chinese New Year from married couples to unmarried people, from seniors to juniors and from bosses to their staff. Whenever my relatives ask why I am not getting married yet, I answer “so I can get Lai Sees every year”. If you are single and wants some pocket money, say good words to the married Chinese couples. Typical ones include Sun Nin Faai lok (Happy new year) and Kung Hei Fat Choi (Congratulations and be prosperous). Sometimes, you will be surprised how much you will get in one Lai See. Usually people put $20 in one Lai See. But I once received $100 from some random client when I once worked in a chocolate shop as a teen.

The 7th day of the New Year is called “The People’s Birthday”, the day everyone gets older. Like many other days during the Spring Festival, chicken is served as chicken is always served during one’s birthday. I remember one year when I was not in Hong Kong during the Chinese New Year, I threw a birthday party with friends to cure my homesickness. No chicken for celebration but hopefully the (alcoholic) “spirit” was there. You might just as well do the same, as this year “The Common People’s Birthday” falls on a Saturday.

The 15th day of the New Year is the Lantern Festival. In the past, families walked around with the lanterns to enjoy the first full-moon of the year. It was also one of the very few chances that single girls were allowed to leave their houses. In this day, the girls could finally enjoy a bit of freedom to play riddle games, read poems and have a tea party with other gentlemen who might be their future husbands. Therefore, this day is also the Chinese Valentines. Of course nowadays the traditional Lantern Festival exists no more and girls are no longer confined at home. 

Bai Nin (Avoid the New Year)

For some young Chinese couples, Chinese New Year is a big hassle – too many rules to remember, too many traditions to follow, too many relatives to visit and too many Lai Sees to give. So we have a term called “Bai Nin”, literally translated as “to avoid the year”. The term means that people go traveling so they can “escape” this festival that can be quite tedious. If you are one of those people, here are some locations were you can escape the Red (festival) and the Hong Kong winter cold.

http://www.hiphongkong.com/content/getaways_hong_kong_travel_hotels_resorts_asia_beyond

Whatever way you choose to celebrate your Chinese New Year, hiphongkong wishes you Sun Nin Faai Lok, Kung Hei Fat Choi and all the best in the year of the Rabbit!