CECI HEINEN: Hello everyone! This is Ceci Heinen from the Minnesota Daily and this is In The Know, a podcast dedicated to the University of Minnesota. I hope everyone is enjoying the beginning of this semester and not drowning in homework just yet.
Even though January may seem like a drab, dry, cold, and windy month here in Minnesota, it’s the most important month of the year for many cultures around the world. This is because of the Lunar New Year, which took place this year on Wednesday, Jan. 29. I never personally celebrated, but I know it means so much to so many.
History professor Anne Waltner specializes in early modern and 16th to 17th century China, and she says that the Lunar New Year symbolizes a new beginning in China.
ANNE WALTNER: You want to clean your house. You want to pay your debts. You want to have the family over and serve special kinds of food and it’s still an incredibly important holiday. I think in a lot of places they’re ten days off from work. Many people go back to the villages that they came from. The biggest travel in the whole world is Chinese New Year, people going back.
HEINEN: Waltner says that the Chinese New Year forges deep connections between family rituals and cosmic time. She told me about a traditional custom of defining someone’s age based not on the day they were born, but on the coming of the Lunar New Year.
WALTNER: So when you’re born, you’re one sui. At the New Year, you become a second sui. So, a child who’s born in the last month of the year becomes two, almost immediately. And I think, I mean, that’s another example of the way the lunar calendar intersects with people’s intimate personal lives.
HEINEN: As well as providing people with deep and intimate connections, the Lunar New Year brings to the table a plethora of symbols and rituals that span through the centuries.
Assistant professor Alia Goehr in the department of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies told the tale of Zhong Kui — a man who lived an unlucky life, but brings luck to others in the afterlife.
ALIA GOEHR: So he’s associated with a legend about a real person. So according to legend, he’s someone who went to take the imperial examinations. And really did very well in the examinations and should have received a high official appointment but didn’t, and he was so upset when he didn’t receive his appointment that he ended his life.
He ended up going into the underworld where he then received a really elevated appointment. According to tradition, one of the Tang Dynasty emperors was suffering from a bad illness and then had a dream that Zhong Kui came and basically attacked the demons that were causing his illness.
So then, just fast forwarding a few hundred years by the Song Dynasty, so looking at the 10th through the 12th centuries, by that time it became really popular to put images at the New Year, and the idea was that he could, yeah, maybe expel some demons who are plaguing your household, or just get rid of bad luck.
HEINEN: Goehr says images of Zhong Kui are still hung up around the New Year to this day to bring good luck to those who have demons hanging around in their lives.
Both Goehr and Waltner say making offerings to the gods during Lunar New Year is big. Such as to the kitchen gods and the God of Wealth.
WALTNER: In the past, there would be woodblock prints that would often be hung up in the house or, or by the gate. And one of the woodblock prints, there would be a kitchen god, and one of the things the kitchen god would do is report to higher deities about what’s going on in the house.
And one of the things that people would do, and I think they would do this more prominently at New Year’s and other times, is they would put honey on the lips of the print. The words that he spoke would be sweet. There is a connection between the human and the cosmos that happens at the New Year.
GOEHR: But it’s interesting because it’s not just about making offerings to the god so that he’ll look kindly upon you and help you out. In one case, something that worshipers would do is they would actually go and request to borrow money from the God of Wealth. So it’s like to borrow some money that they can use for their own business prospects.
But they would borrow it in the form of spirit money, right? Because you can’t borrow like real human money from a god. So the idea is that they would borrow spirit money, and then over the course of the next year, they would consistently make offerings to the God of Wealth. And then at the next New Year, they would pay him back with interest, like two to ten times as much, probably also in the form of spirit money.
HEINEN: Who would have thought you would have to pay interest to a god? I guess he is the God of Wealth though, which means he would be smart enough to make people pay spirit money interest for his services.
Goehr also says that the popular Chinese novel Dream of The Red Chamber by Cao Xueqin has an important place in the historical representation of the Lunar New Year.
This novel could be a podcast episode by itself as it is 2,500 pages long. Yes, you heard that right, 2,500 pages! Without getting too lost into the plot of the story, the novel provides a moral lesson surrounding how one should celebrate the holiday.
GOEHR: The New Year is a time to celebrate wealth and hope for wealth, but that kind of obsession over wealth can also lead to some anxiety. So, you know, maybe one of the morals of this story is that you should just focus on forms of good fortune that aren’t money oriented.
HEINEN: I wish I could take more time to uncover the hidden meanings and symbols within this novel with Goehr, but, unfortunately, I think you would be listening to this episode until the next Lunar New Year if I did.
It is evident that there are eons of history behind the rituals and meanings of the Lunar New Year that I cannot even begin to uncover. Although one historical aspect of the New Year that stands out to me is the Lantern Festival that traditionally occurs on the 15th day of the lunar month, and this year will be on Feb. 12.
GOEHR: The reason it’s fun is that the Lantern Festival, so traditionally speaking, women from elite families shouldn’t go walking around in the streets, right? So during this time in China, there was this idea that if you’re like a good girl from a good family, you’re going to stay indoors. No one’s going to see you.
But at least in the context of fiction, the Lantern Festival is when even good girls are allowed to leave the house at night. And so there’s this sense of people spilling out into the streets to gaze at lanterns that people have put on display, and there’s a lot of opportunity for mingling and romantic connection.
And you know, having also visited some places where there were really wonderful lantern displays, I feel like you can still feel that romance these days. You know, this excitement of lots of young people going out. Everybody looks great in lantern light.
And you know, if you see a lantern with a riddle inscribed on it, you can linger at that lantern and maybe also use that lingering as an excuse to linger near someone that you think is cute.
HEINEN: I need someone to let me know if they have ever found their true love at a Lantern Festival because that sounds like the most romantic setting ever. What a beautiful way to cap off the Lunar New Year celebrations which typically last 15 days, once the moon is full again.
So now that we know a little more about the history of the Lunar New Year and how it was celebrated and symbolized in the past, let’s see how people are connecting to and drawing meaning from it today.
Goehr has celebrated the Lunar New Year three times in Beijing, Hong Kong and Taipei. Her most significant New Year’s experience was when she attended a temple in Yilan, Taiwan.
GOEHR: I went with a friend to visit her family in Yilan, which is an area not too far from Taipei, where a lot of rice is grown, like it’s more rural feeling. And late at night on New Year’s Eve, my friend’s aunt and mother wanted to go to the local temple, right? So this is where you would make some offerings to the God of Wealth.
And I had never done this kind of thing before. I had never seen it, and how wonderful to get to do it with locals. And they were really keen to bring me because my friend did not want to go. She’s like, “No mom, I’m not going to the temple.” And I was like, “I’ll go!”
So, they took me and it was just incredible. It was close to midnight and there were tons of families there. It was quite crowded. We had to wait in line. And we went through all of these different halls of the temple burning incense and like expressing our sincere hopes and wishes to all of the different gods in the temple.
And at the time I was a PhD student working on my dissertation, and I really didn’t know how things were going to go with my dissertation. So I prayed to the gods for good luck with my dissertation. I’m telling you right after that everything ended up turning in my favor and, you know, I finished and I not only finished, I also got a job.
But just to tie this back to what I was saying about the God of Wealth rituals, you know, borrowing money and repaying it when you make offerings to these gods, you have to like promise to give them something back in return.
So a few years after I graduated, I actually did make a point of going back to the temple to make some offerings to the gods. You know, I’m not religious, but I just feel like, even if this isn’t a real person, I did make this person a promise, right? And I should make good on that promise because things turned out well for me.
HEINEN: I think that is a pretty amazing story and proof that possibly giving offerings to the God of Wealth on the Lunar New Year can help you succeed in school. Or maybe it’s just that specific temple in Yilan which I now really want to go visit.
Sophomore and developmental psychology major Adella Mulawarman is the Advocacy Chair for the Chinese American Student Association. Lunar New Year is a very important time for her, not only to see her family and eat amazing food, but to reconnect with her Chinese ancestry.
ADELLA MULAWARMAN: Yeah, Lunar New Year is very special to me. I, ethnically, my family is Chinese, but both of my parents actually immigrated from Indonesia. And so Chinese New Year in particular, like the Lunar New Year, was one of the most prominent ways that I felt connected to my Chinese heritage growing up because we had like a, you know, this weird conglomeration of Western and Indonesian and Chinese culture growing up in my house.
But it was always so much fun. We would always celebrate with family friends, and food has always been like the biggest part of Chinese New Year for me. So, you know, eating like all the dumplings and the noodles and all of the kind of lucky symbolism that comes with each dish has always been really cool.
HEINEN: Mulawarman has a better appreciation for all aspects of the Lunar New Year as she has gotten older and become more involved in the preparation and planning of the holiday.
MULAWARMAN: Again, to go back to like the food as well just like, I definitely became more involved in the kitchen with preparing the foods and the dishes. You learn the different ways to fold the dumplings, and that becomes its own kind of ritual almost with like spending time with the people who are creating this thing to then eat it together.
When I was a kid, it was just playing games with everyone until it’s time to eat. A big tradition is like removing or it’s like cleaning up. You want to remove all the dust, like the bad luck. So even kind of like the act of like preparing the space for the celebration, like every single bit kind of has meaning to it.
HEINEN: A common theme throughout all of my interviews was the symbolic aspects of the Lunar New Year. For example, the symbolism of the zodiacs and what they meant to the holiday.
Third-year information technology infrastructure major, Huy Tran, is head coordinator for the Tet Show, a show celebrating the Vietnamese Lunar New Year, a.k.a. Tet. He says the zodiac plays a role in how his family celebrates Tet.
HUY TRAN: I think a tradition that is one of my favorites is, we have zodiac animals, so, it goes in a line, this year is the year of the snake, and so if somebody is born on a year of a snake, they would go in the house first. And then it would just move down the line, and so, the year prior, which is the last person in the house would be the new one.
HEINEN: Mulawarman has a bit of an out of the ordinary connection with her zodiac animal. She seems to keep seeing it appear on her dishes of all places.
MULAWARMAN: I was born the year of the rooster, 2005. Funnily enough, all the dishes in my apartment actually are all chicken themed. So I guess that’s a random homage to my zodiac sign. Not necessarily on purpose, but I do think it’s kind of funny.
HEINEN: I was born in the year of the monkey, but I can’t say I have seen monkeys crop up in my life too often. I loved Curious George as a kid and I still do. Maybe that was an unconscious connection to my zodiac. Mulawarman also says the meaning of 2025’s year of the snake could be a few different things.
MULAWARMAN: I do know it generally symbolizes rebirth, because I think the shedding of the skin, like that sort of a thing. Snakes are also known to be very wise and full of knowledge. So, yeah, maybe a lot of learning and growing this year.
HEINEN: Both Tran and Mulawarmen are involved in creating two different New Year’s celebrations. Tran has been planning for the Tet show for almost half a year now, and he’s finally able to celebrate all of his hard work with his community.
TRAN: Since we’re working on such a big production over the past six, seven months together. It’s just a really rewarding way to welcome in the New Year for us, and not only that, but to show over 2,000 people what we’ve been working on and all of our hard work and efforts and just celebrating this momentous occasion with each other.
HEINEN: The Tet show is open to all and will be taking place at Northrop at the Carlson Family Stage on Feb. 8 at 6 p.m.
TRAN: So the overarching theme of our show this year is Colors of Our Homeland. And I think we really wanted to focus on that because many people feel far from home, and they just wanted to be reminded what it’s like back in Vietnam or just to know what it’s like for people that were born overseas and have never gone back.
So what you can expect from the show is just learning about how Vietnamese Americans were raised and the experiences that a lot of Vietnamese American children grew up in. And then learn also about how much family and friends matter to us.
HEINEN: Mulawarman is involved in the planning of the annual Chinese American Student Association’s celebration of the Chinese New Year on Feb. 16 at 4:40 p.m. in the Great Hall at Coffman Union.
MULAWARMAN: We’re gonna have tons of different elements. We’re gonna have booths. We’re doing, I know some of some of the booths, I know the booth I’m in charge of, so I’m not sure about everything. We’re gonna be decorating the red envelopes, and also calligraphy. So being able to like practice with the traditional, like you know, caricatures and everything, which would be really fun.
We’re going to have a ton of performances as well. Which is really cool both to showcase student talents and also like just promoting individual voices on campus too, for anyone who wants to, which is really neat. And we also have a lot of traditional and modern Chinese based dances. Everyone’s welcome, stay for some of it or all of it. We’ll have really good food. We’ll have fun activities, a photo booth, performances and a lot of cool stuff.
HEINEN: I hope this episode has inspired listeners to either deepen their connection with the Lunar New Year or to explore the holiday and the rich history and culture tied to it. As the New Year was this past Wednesday, Jan. 29, I want to leave you with a New Year’s message from Tran.
TRAN: Leave all the bad things that’s happened so far in the past year as we’re welcoming in this New Year because it’s tradition to, you know, clean your house, clean your body, just keep things around you as organized as possible as we’re welcoming in this new year tonight. So then, luck and prosperity.
HEINEN: This episode of In The Know was written by Ceci Heinen and produced by Kaylie Sirovy. As always we appreciate you listening in and if you have any comments, questions or concerns, our email inbox is open at [email protected].
Wishing all who celebrate a happy Lunar New Year! Thank you for listening, my name is Ceci Heinen, and this has been In The Know.