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Lunar New Year, also known as the Spring Festival, is celebrated by over a billion people around the world from mainland China to South Korea, Singapore and Malaysia. This year, it began on Sunday and ends on Feb. 9. Many families decide to celebrate together by indulging in a feast, watching fireworks or dragon and lion dances.

This holiday is significant for many Asian families around the world because it honors the first new moon of the lunisolar calendar, which indicates both the phase of the Moon and the time of the solar year. Many east Asian countries use this calendar to end the old year and bring in the new one with a focus on prosperity and luck.

It’s important to continue spreading awareness about this holiday and its traditions to respect those who celebrate it. At Syracuse University, over 1,445 students identify as Asian and many celebrate the Lunar New Year. Faculty, staff and students who don’t celebrate should know about this holiday and its history in order to demonstrate respect for Asian culture on campus.

Before the holiday begins, many families practice housekeeping traditions. Examples of this include putting up decorations with Lunar New Year inspired designs, deep cleaning of the house before Spring Festival and making offerings to ancestors — food and a small cup of wine — for them to eat first before having a long-awaited family reunion dinner.

The day before Lunar New Year, my family gets together to eat and exchange red envelopes, which symbolize good luck and are always given from elders to younger individuals and those who are unmarried. There should never be an odd amount of money in a red envelope because there is a belief that good things come in doubles. The number four is considered unlucky because it sounds like the word death in Chinese, so it’s avoided altogether.

My fondest memory of Lunar New Year was back in 2016, when my family had a huge reunion at my uncle’s house. There was tons of food that I loved to eat like ginger scallion chicken, salmon sushi, boiled fish with ginger, lobster and fried sesame balls. The next morning, we all went to Chinatown in New York City to have dim sum and watch the lion dances that were being performed on the streets. It was a great time being around family members and bringing in the new year together.

During this annual dinner, fish, dumplings, chicken, sweet rice balls and rice are always offered. Fish represents prosperity, dumplings are a sign of wealth and the sweet rice balls indicate unity. Every Lunar New Year coincides with one of twelve animals — the rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, sheep, monkey, rooster, dog or pig.

The cycle repeats every 12 years and 2023 is the year of the rabbit. Rabbits are considered to be the luckiest of the New Year’s animals and those born during the years associated with them are friendly, calm, tend to have artistic skills and dislike fighting.

In my sorority, Sigma Psi Zeta, Inc. we celebrate the Lunar New Year by educating our members on why this holiday is important and the traditions that come with it. This includes watching dragon performances, eating black sesame rice ball soup and celebrating the Lantern Festival, which marks the end of the Spring Festival period.

The Lantern Festival is celebrated on the 15th day of the first lunar month. People will eat sweet rice balls, watch lion dances and set off fireworks during this event. Dragon or lion dances are popular during this time as the lion symbolizes power, good fortune and wisdom.

Remi Jose | Illustration Editor

There are also superstitions about actions that shouldn’t be done prior to Lunar New Year, like not sweeping the floor or taking the trash out, as this is seen as the wealth and good fortune being swept away. Similarly, washing your hair leading up to the day of Lunar New Year is seen as washing good fortune away. Lending or borrowing money during the preceding days could lead to debt in the superstition.

Keeping these traditions alive is important to me, especially in a predominantly white institution, because it’s crucial for others to understand and learn about Asian culture. Anti-Asian hate and crimes have risen in the United States since 2020, largely due to COVID-19. Throughout the nation, the Asian community, especially elders, have felt a lack of support and safety from those around them and many have been living with fear and anger for the past couple of years.

In 2020, an SU professor was put on administrative leave after referring to COVID-19 as the “Wuhan flu” in his course syllabus, though the professor later worked with a campus free speech group to be reinstated. Such language diminishes the feeling of equality at SU and is an indication that students at a PWI should learn about other cultures.

By celebrating this holiday, a feeling of love and happiness can be felt by the Asian community which encourages a celebration of culture. Providing a safe space for individuals who acknowledge the holiday helps them to feel like they are seen and heard on campus, even when not around family.

Students can celebrate while on campus by having dinner together or attending the Chinese Students and Scholars Association’s Annual Chinese New Year Gala on Jan. 27 at 7 pm in Goldstein Auditorium. Or with Sigma Psi Zeta, in collaboration with Orange After Dark and SU’s Center for International Services for a Lunar New Year celebration at 10 pm. At the celebration, students can practice calligraphy writing and play with jianzi or Chinese shuttlecocks commonly played with during the holiday.

With writing this piece, I wish happiness and good luck to those who are celebrating the Lunar New Year and to continue spreading awareness about its history and the traditions that come with it.

Erica Ng, President of Sigma Psi Zeta Sorority, Inc.

Published on January 22, 2023 at 11:07 pm