Meanderings: 新年快乐!

Hello, readers!

As you may have noticed, my blog posts are usually rather lengthy...that's because I have a lot of ideas throughout the week, and I save them up to write in one cumulative blog post. I've seen some of my friends do these types of posts, so I'm going to start a specific category for all my rambling, slightly off-topic, meandering thoughts. (Honestly, I'm so clever. I'm like...a Renaissance man...)

If you can read the title, you may have already guessed what this post is about. Chinese New Year starts tomorrow! This year is the year of the sheep (羊). I say "starts" because Chinese New Year is a large celebration in China, lasting about two weeks. People get time off from work and school to celebrate with their families. In fact, some call this time of year the world's largest "human migration" because so many people take public transportation or fly home to celebrate. You may also lion parades at the beginning of Chinese New Year, and a televised event, the New Year's Gala, similar to the United States' Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve (what a mouthful). On the whole, Chinese New Year is usually a much bigger celebration than the regular calendar New Year. Families, government officials, stores, airlines, and more all build up to the holiday with decorations, speeches, and special merchandise.

A woman hands a red envelope to a lion dancer

The Chinese Zodiac

In celebration of Chinese New Year, here are some common Chinese phrases or terms you may use during the holiday:

• 新年快乐 - (xīnnián kuàilè) happy new year!
• 恭喜发财 - (gōngxǐ fācái) another way to say happy new year. It's often written as gong hay fat choy, which is the Cantonese pronunciation. I'll have more coming about the different dialects of Chinese in a later post.
• 羊 - (yáng) sheep. The "years" are based off of the Chinese zodiac, which you can read more about here.
• 红包 - (hóngbāo) red envelope. Parents and grandparents often give brand new money, packaged in red envelopes, to younger children. (This was a good source of income in my childhood years. Oh to be young.)
• 身体健康 - (shēntǐ jiànkāng) good health to you - while the regular New Year's celebration in America is typically just a fun celebration (maybe with a few resolutions involved), Chinese New Year traditionally places a lot of emphasis on values like health, good fortune, and prosperity.

(There were so many gorgeous New Year graphics. Here's the cutest!)