02/11/2021
Dear McGillians! Can’t believe we already enter the midterm period in the winter semester. There is still a long way to go before our spring break arrives. But right now, we are looking forward to the Chinese lunar new year.
According to the lunar calendar, Feb. 12th is the start of the new year. Therefore, the Chinese new year celebration is commonly called “ Guo Nian”, written in Chinese, it’s 过年, which means without passing Feb. 11th, 2020 is still incomplete. While, in this special year, social distancing might block our way to gathering friends and families, we still look for a way to celebrate and connect with others. Besides visiting friends and relatives, what else can we do? We have fewer parties but more time to spend with our close family members.
Food serves as an emotional bond that ties our family together. On New year's eve, every family has a grand dinner. The dishes of New year's eve dinner are different from province to province, such as steamed glutinous rice with eight treasures, squirrel mandarin fish, preserved vegetable & pork, and so on. The list is endless and diverse. But one food every province shares in common is dumplings. Whenever we eat “jiaozi”, we might just grab a bag of instantly frozen dumplings because we are so busy preparing the entree. But this year, we might have more leisure time to make dumplings with our family members.
Dumpling is one of the most important foods in the Chinese New Year celebration. Traditionally, the members of a family get together to make dumplings on New Year's Eve. Since the shape of Chinese dumplings resembles ancient Chinese gold or silver ingots, which were used as currency, dumplings symbolize wealth and prosperity.
Some people would like to hide a coin or a candy in some of the dumplings they make. People believe that whoever finds the coin will likely have good fortune in the whole New Year.
If you want to know more about the Spring Festival, you can check this link to see a short video about our Spring Festival Gala:
When firecrackers light up the sky, the welcoming of the year of ox begins. Debuting in 1983, the Spring Festival Gala has been recognized by Guinness World Records as the world's most-watched TV program. No matter where you are, join us for the biggest global TV event of the year on February 11, 20...
