Year of the Tiger

[Photo Credit--newspapergrl.com]

On February 14th, Lunar New Year officially begins! 2010 is the year of the Tiger, the third animal in the 12-animal Chinese Zodiac. The Tiger represents courage, passion, and power--and for those I know who were born in the year of the Tiger, these descriptions hold true! For the past couple of New Years, my family and friends would gather together at someone's house and celebrate the coming year. One of our recent traditions is to make dumplings from scratch. The kids would cut the dough into small circles and press them flat. The adults made the filling, and another group would scoop filling into the dough circle and form it into the perfect bite-size dumpling.

It is always nice to come together to celebrate happiness, culture, stories, laughs, food, and the occasional swap of money! (Red envelopes are handed out with money--always an even amount) Popular themes are wealth, longevity, and happiness. Red is the popular color for the day--people will hang red-decorations around the house and in their windows, and wear the color red to signify joy, virtue, truth, and sincerity.

While I will not be at home this year for Chinese New Year, I will still be celebrating it a day early through my school's Lunar New Year Festival, which will feature many talented students and teachers as they play their instruments, sing their songs, perform martial arts, break dance, and even perform a monologue in Japanese (not Chinese...but nevertheless, it will still be entertaining!) Also, Chinese New Year falls on Valentines Day (or Valentines Day falls on Chinese New Year), which is kind of perfect, because then not only will I be wearing red, but everyone! Lots of love for the Chinese New Year, let's make this a memorable year!