Just a lunar New Year 101.
If you want a little
lesson on Lunar New Year,
you know the Asian Hall of Fame was
first established right here in Seattle.
It's now based out of Los Angeles,
but still has the same goal overcoming
anti Asian bias by elevating Asian
contributions in the US and around the world.
So we asked President Macky Shea to
share more about the Lunar New Year.
Lunar New Year is one of the most,
if not the most important holiday
for many communities that have
a very strong Asian presence or
a very strong Chinese community,
it's celebrated by not just China but
15 countries all around the world.
That's about 3 billion people,
10 times the size of the total
population in the United States shuts
down the first day of the New Year.
This year, the first day is February the 1st,
so it changes every year.
It's based on the lunar calendar.
It's anywhere from mid January through
mid February and I'd like to describe
Lunar New Year in a couple of ways.
It's kind of like Saint Patrick.
Today you don't have to be
Irish to wear green.
It's all about luck and prosperity
and bringing in the new year.
It's a lot like Thanksgiving.
The largest human migration on the
planet happens New Year's Eve where
everybody is taking the plane,
train or automobile home to spend
time with family and enjoy the food.
And lastly,
it's a lot like Hanukkah plus
Christmas times 100.
The largest consumer spend
happens during this time.
You got a ton of people shopping,
buying red envelopes,
buying red jackets like I do,
buying gold, buying watches,
going to Ben Bridge.
Grabbing all the gold they can,
and it's a really big part of
the tradition of the New Year.
Historically, how did this start?
How did it come about?
You know, Lunar New Year started
in China during the Shang dynasty.
People think about 3500 years ago.
It started as an agricultural
ceremony where farmers got together
and they prayed to the gods.
They prayed to the ancestors
for a better harvest,
and that's where you have a lot of red.
There was this myth that a beast in
the field would come and destroy
the crops and eat the children.
So you've got to have red on the
doors to scare away the beast.
Have fun, you have to have
firecrackers to make loud noise
to scare away the beast.
So overtime this whole focus on
prosperity to your business longevity
to your family still remains in general.
It's all about hope for the better.
Tomorrow to come.
I love that. So I,
I love that you mentioned the
red envelopes like this one here.
I know this is a huge
part of the tradition.
What are some other traditions
during this period?
And actually if you could explain
what the red envelope is all about,
so there are a couple of things I just
thought it was really interesting.
A lot of people.
We don't know that in the Asian
culture you're not supposed to
exchange money or checks by hand,
so you have to put money in a check
even to a babysitter in an envelope.
Write the name and present it with
two hands so you can give envelopes,
red ones for Chinese,
Japanese use white ones,
but during weddings and birthdays,
graduation lunar New Year is no exception.
So red envelope signifies respect.
It signifies luck.
Children always go to their
parents for the red envelope.
Usually you give red envelopes
to employees as a bonus.
The husband is supposed to give away from
it so she can go and buy her new watch.
So a lot of respect goes
around with a red envelope.
I love that. Are there any other
special foods or things that that
are really popular at this time?
You know, every country,
every culture has their special food.
Noodle is very important.
Luno long noodles signify longevity.
You've got noodles and every culture.
Sticky things are important.
Sticky rice, red beans, something sweet.
It means it's fortunate is going
to stick to the household you also.
Have a lot of different kind of games.
Koreans love to play a lot of games that
use a lot of red and pink with their games.
Sometimes they jump in the air
with these really fun games.
Indonesia,
Malaysia also have very special
games when they gather around the household.
But the most important thing is
focusing on the family focusing
on fortune and focusing on food.
You also want to wear red.
You want to make sure you clean the house.
It's really important.
I remember my mom would drag
us to get her haircut.
Really wanna start brand new,
have to have all the batteries working
and all the household clocks cannot be.
Got out of tick tock because
clocks means longevity.
You can't have your alarm system off,
everything's gotta have new batteries,
new shoes.
The only thing that I do want to warn
everybody is don't give anything quite.
A lot of times people give a white
candle white lanterns or wear white
dress white as signifying death.
Usually you have that in a funeral.
Don't do anything quite.
Another thing is don't give
anything in a floor.
4 sounds a lot like the character for death.
Again, no can do.
Just do not do it.
Kate is the lucky number you want to give it.
Eight 'cause it sounds like Fortune
6 is also very good because the
character for six has an outside
leg like this and it's inviting
fortune in 8/6 is great for as I
know why doesn't know red is a yes
I love that. Oh my gosh,
not only the dudes with the dumps too.
Thank you so much wacky. What about
the Zodiac mean and how do the
different animals kind of affect
the years in people's lives?
It's really interesting because in the
Western culture where we have a new year,
we celebrate the New York fireworks
and that's great. But there is no.
Celebration of the Zodiac year
we celebrate the month right,
Sagittarius, Capricorn, etc.
But the Asian culture focuses
a lot on the Zodiac year.
So every year there's different animal that
symbolizes something different for the year.
This year, it's the year of the
tiger you're the tiger symbolizes,
power, symbolizes aggression,
symbolizes that all the projects
that you've really wanted to finish,
you're going to accomplish this
year because there's a lot of
spirit and vitality to the tiger.
So I would tiger.
Yes, this is your year.
My ear and what happens is if it's
your ear you just feel a sense
of renewed luck and everybody
wants to do business with you.
I love it now. Maki has promised to come
back and tell us more about the work
they're doing at the Asian Hall of Fame,
and you know me, I am the year of the sheep
or the OR the RAM and I confessed in Maki
that didn't sound as cool as the tiger.
Yeah, tigers definitely seems
a lot more intimidating.
I I'm the year of the rabbit which
rabbits are usually gentle and quiet,
patient and very responsible.
Does that sound like me 100%
except for the quiet part.
So so the.
You know there are 12 Zodiac animals,
so every 12 years your your year
will come up,
so it'll be another 12 years until
it's the year of the tiger minus
next year and the year of the rabbit.
So I didn't even check when my next year is,
so it's every 12 years,
so I'm I'll be 48 next year,
so that's I'm with year of the
rabbit four times, very cool.