First off for those of you who may not know, I was actually born in Taiwan. My first language was Mandarin, and Lunar New Year was a huge part of my life growing up.
The older I got, the less I celebrated. Mostly, it was because I didn’t know how to celebrate it. This year, I was determined to celebrate Lunar New Year. It is the Year of the Pig, the last animal in the zodiac, and it is the year of fortune, good luck, and wealth.
Like heck yeah, give me some of that!
After a lot of text messages with my mom and a lot of prep work over the weekend, I finally got my house ready for Lunar New Year. I’m so excited to share with you all what it is that I do to celebrate, the meaning, and some of my favorite homemade recipes, courtesy of my mom and grandpa (aka the best cooks ever).
Quick Note: I am Taiwanese, but we celebrate Lunar New Year very similarly to how the Chinese celebrate due to historic cultural ties. Most of what I share regarding tradition and culture are the common beliefs held across the Han ethnic people across Taiwan and China (two separate countries).
Cleaning During Lunar New Year
It is probably the most boring, but the most important thing you can do. We traditionally believe in the power of spirits, and the cleansing of your house is essentially a spiritual act of ridding yourself of bad or malicious spirits.
Because I am actually Christian, my beliefs on ghosts are a little different. However, I firmly believe in the idea of starting the new year fresh with a clean house.
This weekend, I was on a mission to declutter as much as possible. In the end, I wasn’t actually able to declutter much, but I was able to organize my house so everything actually looked tidied. I put things away to clear as much space as I can, and I dusted the whole house.
Put Up Decorations to Celebrate Good Fortune and Spring
You are supposed to decorate your house all over with red, and most importantly, put up signs that say “Spring” and “Good Fortune”.
My mom used to tell me an old tale of the red warding off evil spirits, and that by cleansing your house and putting up red, you are setting a tone for the new year of saying NOPE to evil spirits. This is also why you’re supposed to wear red.
What may also not be as widely known is that Lunar New Year is also the Spring Festival, to celebrate the end of winter. It is based on the Lunar Calendar, which is why the date shifts every month.
To celebrate the coming of Spring and to set a positive tone for the new year, I put up red diamonds on my windows with the words “Spring” and “Good Fortune” UPSIDE DOWN. You put the words UPSIDE DOWN on the windows to signify that you want Spring “here” in this house and that you want Good Fortune “here” as well.
Red Envelopes, the Zodiac, and Other Fun Things About Lunar New Year
A common theme that you have noticed is that red is everywhere. As the color of good luck and the symbol to ward of evil spirits, naturally, the envelopes are red too. As a kid growing up with not a lot of moneyu, this actually made a lot of sense to me.
Why on earth would I want some evil spirits to get into my money? Of
Red
The Tale of the Chinese Zodiac and How to Find Out What You Are
The story and origins of the Chinese Zodiac is actually one of my favorite stories. It all starts with a race.
I genuinely want to do the story justice because I used to hear about this story all the time, so I found an awesome link to the story being told here.
The problem with trying to find out what Zodiac you are is that if you have a January or February birthday, you have to be careful with simply using your year. For example, Mikhail is the year of the dog, but based on his birth year, he’d be the year of the Pig.
Here is a super helpful and most accurate guide I’ve found to determining what your zodiac is.
I can attest that it is accurate because my sister was born on Chinese New Year, and this calendar has her zodiac right! In case you want to know more about each particular animal, here is another helpful guide:
https://chinesenewyear.net/zodiac/
Last But Not Least… THE FOOD OF LUNAR NEW YEAR
Let’s first quickly talk about what you’re actually supposed to eat: dumplings, fish, apples, oranges, and rice cakes.
Dumplings are shaped like a “yuan bao”, or a syce, which was the gold currency of imperial China since its first Dynasty, the Qin Dynasty (not to be confused with the last dynasty, the Qing Dynasty).
You’re also supposed to have fish because of the saying in Chinese “nian nian you yu”, which really means that every year, you’ll have an abundance.
The term for Apples in Mandarin is “ping
Oranges (or Mandarins, whatever you want to call them)… I’ve never really understand. However, it means “da ji da li”, which means that it is supposed to bring you good fortune. The bigger the orange, the better fortune you will get!
Lastly, rice cakes (or “
Here is the BEST recipe you will ever find on how to make fish dumplings, courtesy of my grandpa and my mom
Because Mikhail (my boyfriend) can’t eat pork, we never have pork dumplings. My mom has this awesome recipe using fish that I absolutely LOVE. What’s great about this is that if you’re not a red meat eater, this will be perfect for you.
Ingredients You Will Need:
- Fish (tilapia, cod… do not choose salmon)
- Chinese jiu cai 韭菜
- Soy Sauce
- Sesame oil
- Salt
- Garlic
- Flour
- Water
- Optional: vermicelli
Prepping the dumpling wrappers:
- Measure out 3 cups of flour and 1 cup of water (this will allow you to make about 50 dumplings)
- Combine both of them together until you get a dough like texture
- Use a wet paper towel (damp so it is not dripping wet) and cover the dough texture
- Let it sit for 1-2 hours before you start wrapping dumpling
Prepping the filling:
- Measure out the same amount of fish and same amount of Chinese jiu cai. If you are adding vermicelli, then add the same amount of vermicelli.
- For better taste, I like add more jiu cai than fish
- Add some water if your mixture becomes too thick. However, you don’t want it too watery but too stiff will make your dumplings taste bad
- Add soy sauce, sesame oil, salt, and garlic (my mom doesn’t like adding garlic here, but I personally love it)
Making the dumplings:
- Cut up your dough into several 1 inch circles
- Mold each of your 1 inch circles so that they become a large circle (about 3-4 inches in diameter, depending on how big you’d like them).
- Remember to keep your dough/wrapper thicker on the inside and thinner on the outside
- Take a spoonful of your fillings and add it to the middle of the wrapper
- Fold the edges of your wrapper together to make a dumpling form
Cooking regular, boiled dumplings
- Boil a large pot of water (enough to cover and submerge all of your dumplings entirely)
- Once boiled, place each of your dumplings inside the boiling water
- When the dumplings rise to the top, wait about an extra couple of minutes depending on how big your dumplings are to ensure that the meat is cooked thoroughly.
- YOU DO NOT WANT TO OVERCOOK YOUR DUMPLINGS. Fish being overcooked is the worst. For over-sized dumplings, I’d wait about 2-3 minutes until after it has risen to the top before you take the out.
Cooking fried dumplings
- Add a small amount of oil to the bottom of a large pan and then add your raw dumplings
- Let it sit for 1 to 2 minutes until the bottom is golden brown.
- Add water so that it covers only HALF of your dumplings (you don’t want to add more than half – I’d actually recommend 1/3 depending on how golden brown the bottom of your dumplings are)
- Cover your dumplings entirely with a lid, and let it cook until the water has entirely evaporated
THEN YOU ARE DONE WITH COOKING DUMPLINGS!
Dumplings are so hard to make, but practice makes perfect. There is also the old wives tale that when a woman (or man) makes a pretty dumpling, then her (or his) daughter (or son) will be good-looking.
My dumplings are prettyyyyyyy ugly so far, but the good thing is that I have several more years of practice until I have children, so no worries there!
I hope you all enjoyed this view
