The Year of the Wood Snake

 
 
 

By Nanchang Project

The arrival of spring comes with the start of a new year according to the lunisolar calendar. The lunisolar calendar incorporates both the lunar (moon) and solar (sun) calendars and uses intercalation to align lunar months with the solar year. Seems confusing, but you don’t have to understand the calculations to enjoy the celebrations!

Often referred to as Chinese New Year or Lunar New Year in Western cultures, many Asian cultures celebrate the holiday. Chinese communities in Singapore, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand, Brunei, and Indonesia all celebrate in accordance with the lunisolar calendar. As well as non-Chinese cultures, such as Korea and Vietnam, where it is known as Seollal (설날) or Tết Nguyên Đán, respectively.

Other Asian cultures celebrate the new year in accordance with a different calendar, either the lunar or solar calendars (for example, Japan). But much of East Asia observes the new year based on the Chinese lunisolar calendar.

In China the new year is observed for 15 days, beginning with the new moon and ending with the full moon. On Western calendars, this falls between January 21st and February 20th. Since the mid-1990s in China, people have been given seven days off of work to celebrate. This has become known as Spring Festival or Guo Nian (过年). In China, people hang red decorations, set off fireworks, and gather for feasts with family to usher out the old year and usher in the prosperity of the new year. This year, we usher in the year of the wood snake, as each new year coincides with an element and an animal of the zodiac.

All in all, the celebration of the new year as it coincides with the lunisolar calendar is a widespread celebration with a variety of celebratory legends, customs, and traditions across cultures. Intercultural adoptees are among those who celebrate the Lunar New Year, bringing with them new, unique ways to celebrate this holiday.

Here’s how the Nanchang Project team celebrates Spring Festival. Plus two responses from fellow adoptees and supporters of NCPT!

 

Photos courtesy of Cassidy. Copyright © The Nanchang Project.

 

I love celebrating Spring Festival through Chinese food because it helps me feel connected to my heritage. Usually I enjoy restaurant takeout, homemade hot pot, or make baozi with friends. This year is a little more special because I plan to use an authentic hot pot soup base I bought at a Buddhist temple during a trip to my place of origin in China!

– Cassidy Sack
NCPT, Co-Director

Happy Chinese New Year! This time of year is one of my favourites, and possibly one of my favourite holidays. It’s always been special to me as it is one of the only Chinese holidays I celebrated growing up. It always reminded me of where I came from and my cultural background that sometimes I forget about in my daily life. Growing up I would share oranges (for good luck and good fortune!) with my classmates and hand them red envelopes as I wanted to share this holiday and my Chinese side with them (sometimes you are the only Asian person in your entire elementary/middle school). Some of my friends still remember this and it brings us fond memories. I love being able to share my Chinese heritage with my friends and family.

One of my favourite traditions is making fortune cookies with my parents. At first only my mom and I would make them together. She would be in charge of the cookies and I always made the fortunes. In the past several years we started recruiting my dad to join us as well!! It works out great because sometimes the cookies get a bit too hot for us. Last year we gave my dad gloves to help him with folding the cookies, it was a lot less painful. We always make the cookies a few days before the holiday as we invite our closest friends and family members over to celebrate the New Year with us. The house is always decorated for the New Year with different posters and decor catered to the New Year. When everyone comes to celebrate, we always have many desserts and oranges to share. My amazing Nana will bring her famous shortbread cookies over, decorated red for the New Year. Once everyone arrives (mostly in red), we bundle up to go outside (we get cold winters) and light some fireworks to scare off the evil spirits. Then we head inside and eat yummy food that awaits us indoors.

– Jenna Makin
NCPT, Fundraising, Partnerships, Outreach + Web Development

This year I am going to celebrate Chinese New Year with a group of Chinese adoptees in the San Diego area. We plan to make noodles together and go to a local Lunar New Year community celebration. I'm looking forward to connecting with my birth culture with fellow adoptees.

– Catherine Van Weele
NCPT, Web Development

 

Photo courtesy of Brontee. Copyright © The Nanchang Project.

 

Chinese New Year is a weird time for me. As a Chinese adoptee, I’ve always found myself in the weird intersection of feeling too westernized for traditional celebrations but not really identifying with the westernized versions of the celebrations. Recently, I read a testimony where a Chinese adoptee expresses how participating in cultural events with white parents feels inauthentic to them and when trying to reconnect with their birth culture, adoptees are put in a weird place of being an insider and outsider. I think this perfectly encapsulates how I feel about Chinese New Year

For the past few years, I've been trying to carve my own path in seeking out specific ways to celebrate my Chinese culture, in ways that feel authentic to me. One tradition I've been participating in for the past few years is going to my friends’ place with my adoptive mom to make dumplings. This friend has three young children and are my only non-adoptee Chinese friends. What was particularly special the first year was that the children were also learning to make the dumplings, which meant that I didn’t feel this distorted insider/outsider feeling. I didn’t feel like I was trying too hard to fit in and like I had to perform in a certain way, for both the white community and the Chinese community. I'm not too sure how long this tradition will last, but I will always cherish the feeling of participating in an activity that feels authentic to me and that feels like I can fully celebrate my culture without feeling like an impostor and worrying about how others perceive my participation. 

– Brontee Colleen Xianglu Forfar
NCPT, Book Project + Grants and Research

On this Year of the Snake, I will be celebrating with different groups of people: I will be joining Soft Gong, the Quebec-based Chinese adoptee organization in Montreal, for a dim sum event as well as a Lunar New Year dinner at my friend’s.

I have always preferred to gather around food and eating as both communal and cultural experience. As an adoptee, the consumption of Chinese foods, like dim sum, have not always felt very natural. I feel awkward - not knowing what is what, trying things for the first time, unsure of how to communicate what I would like…

This year, I am filled with more hope. I am feeling excited to meet other adoptees who might be experiencing similar thoughts and feelings around culture and their Chinese-ness. I want to try new foods, and learn from my non-adopted friends what is significant to them during these celebrations and what they are looking forward to in the new year. I have decided to go into all these events with the intention of celebrating, rather than being bogged down by what I do not know and how that all makes me different. Still, there will be moments of stress and uncertainty - but I understand that all of that will just have to be part of the process. Happy New Year!

– Hannah Ostiguy Hopp
NCPT, Blog + Book Project + Grants and Research

I have an ancestor altar where I light incense for my ancestors and also share a plate of my favorite Chinese food. I love doing this for CNY. I'll also be taking off work for the first time to lean into my culture!

– Jessie Lutz
NCPT, Grants and Research

Since I am the vice president for my college’s Asian Cultures Club, I will be celebrating Chinese New Year by helping to host a celebration open to the whole school that will include a lion dance.

– Nanchang Project Volunteer

In previous years, I’ve celebrated Lunar New Year with my Asian American, adoptee, and non-Asian friends by eating at restaurants or making dumplings. This year I’ve been invited to my friend’s house for Chinese New Year celebrations and I’m excited and nervous at the same time. This will be the first time I experience the holiday in a Chinese family setting. While I know my friend’s other non-Chinese friends will be there, I feel nervous to make a good impression on my friend’s family and participate in their traditions. My friend’s family is southern Chinese, like me, and I hope I have enough courage to use what little Cantonese CNY phrases that I do know. I’m planning on bringing oranges as citrus is extremely popular during the holidays as a symbol for luck and prosperity; it’s auspicious to keep the branches and leaves attached to show that extra touch of prosperity and fruitfulness for the year.

– Katie Lauder
NCPT, Communications Manager

 
 
 

We also received these responses from fellow adoptees and supporters of Nanchang Project!

 
 

Photo courtesy of Jiamei.

 
 

Every year, my family and I celebrate Lunar New Year/Chinese New Year. When I was adopted, my family traveled to China with one other family who was also adopting; we became great friends. It then became a tradition for my family and the other family to celebrate Chinese New Year together. It is always a great time to fellowship with each other, talk about our adoptions and the time we spent together in China, and eat delicious Asian food to celebrate. My favorite is the mooncakes that my family makes every year. The recipe that we use is from the book called, "Moonbeams, Dumplings & Dragon Boats." We will be celebrating Chinese New Year in a few days! This year, my birthday also ended up being really close to Chinese New Year so I thought that I would have a Chinese New Year themed birthday party. I have never done this before, but I was excited to try something new. I had many different Asian drinks and snacks for all my friends to try. It was a great opportunity for my friends to experience something new as most of them have not ever tried those treats before. I am grateful for the opportunity to celebrate!

– Jiamei Farrell


Happy Lunar New Year!! I look forward to celebrating the Chinese New Year and ringing in the year of the snake this year! In the past few years, it has been so wonderful to have opportunities to celebrate the holiday with others such as a Lunar New Year celebration on my college campus and attending a Lunar New Year public event where I live. It has meant so much to me to be able to celebrate the Lunar New Year by attending local events that celebrate the Lunar New Year

As adoptees, we may not always have the opportunity to celebrate the Lunar New Year as other Asian Americans do because we may not live in communities that celebrate it. There is grief and loss in it, but there are unique opportunities in which we can celebrate the holiday by hosting our own celebration with friends/or family and/or making traditional Lunar New Year foods such as dumplings and noodles. In these past couple years as the Lord has walked me through the healing of my adoption, I seek to learn and celebrate my Asian heritage including Lunar New Year. For this Lunar New Year, I will be celebrating by attending a local Lunar New Year public event. 

Happy Lunar New Year! May this year bring blessings and gratitude to you and your loved ones!

#happylunarnewyear #yearofthesnake 

– Anna

 

Gong xi fa cai! Happy Spring Festival, Chinese New Year, and Lunar New Year to everyone, from the Nanchang Project team! We hope this Year of the Wood Snake holds the promise of great joy and prosperity for you. Let us know here and on social media what celebrations you take part in!


Our blog stories come from readers like you!
We invite you to send us your own story to share. We accept submissions from anyone whose life may have been touched by Chinese international adoption including, but not limited to: adoptees, adoptive families, birth families, friends, searchers.
Details in the link below!