Happy Chinese New Year!

Chinese New Year fell on February 14th this year. Since the Chinese calendar is a lunar calendar, Chinese New Year falls on a different day every year on the Gregorian calendar. For many of the Chinese people, the New Year means food (and more food and more food), traditional dances, firecrackers, and giving red envelopes of money to the children. The New Year also brings the extended family together again.

Celebrating Chinese New Year in our extended family does require weeding out pagan traditions, but other things do remain. There is always plenty of food. The food that is traditionally served is usually a play on words. For example, sticky rice cakes are served since "sticky" in Chinese sounds similar to "year." Fish is served, because the Chinese word for "fish" sounds similar to "wealth" or "treasure." We had plenty of food!

The 8 treasure dessert (made of sticky rice and 8 different kinds of dried fruit)

The red envelopes given to children are traditionally supposed to have money. However, Grandpa and Grandma Chu gave Faith a red envelope with Scripture and a written blessing. That is so much more valuable than money!

So besides enjoying food and family, what other significance does Chinese New Year have? For our extended family, Chinese New Year is also a time of remembering the source of our blessings, true wealth, and family. True blessings come from the Lord alone.

Happy Chinese New Year!