Chinese New Year in Non Chinese neighborhoods

I submitted a little call to action type article. So that's why my writing style today is all weird. It will be cool if it gets printed.

Here goes:

Why should non Chinese want to celebrate Chinese New Year?

In general there are a lot of people who want to learn about other cultures. But

China (and therefore Chinese Culture) in particular is a big deal now and Americans want to learn as much as they can. Chinese New Year has the benefit of being a pretty cool holiday with Lion and Dragon Dance. Plus there are less religious connotations and so people don’t find it threatening to their own culture.

What can I do to promote Chinese New Year?

One thing you can do is encourage your non-Chinese friends to come into Chinese Communities to celebrate. Chinatown’s Celebration will be on February 14 (the same day as Valentine’s day.)

Another thing you can do is celebrate in your own neighborhood or school. If you know lion dance or how to make a special type of food, you can offer to do that at your child’s school or with a couple of neighbors. Last year, I performed at my son’s school and also paraded around to a few houses in the neighborhood with the lion head and drums and  some friends. If you don’t have a lion head at home, you can just make a flat faced mask, and by some cloth for a tail. Drums can be buckets. Maybe it’s not as great as the “real” lion dance, but what about the first lion dance? You have to start from somewhere. This year a few houses, next year a parade around the block.  One day Chinese New Year could be as popular as Halloween or Christmas. (Samhain and Yule)

Should I stay home from work or School?

There are a lot of petitions on Facebook to make Chinese New Year a holiday, and sure you can stay home with your family if that is part of your tradition. But it’s worth thinking about bringing the holiday out to the workplace and school and making others aware of it as well.

That's it.

So why am I doing this? 

Last year I saw complaints about DeBlasio on Facebook and I signed the petition to make Chinese New Year a Holiday. Why not? Hell I bet a ton of non Chinese people probably signed it too. Anything to get off school right? But here's the thing, the best is to bring the holiday out into the open any way you can. 

Last year I did try to do a parade. One of Noah's friends showed up (This was Feb vacation week). They were also a mixed family. The mom is actually Japanese. She made this little treat bags to give to the houses we went to that said Happy New Year in Chinese and were filled with popcorn. That was sooo cool. She helped out while carrying the younger baby on her back through snow drifts. 

Apparently many Japanese celebrate the same Lunar New Year (depending on which sect of Buddhism they follow) and there is also the Western New Year.. and another New Year. I also did a presentation at school with another mixed family. The father is Vietnamese. So they explained some traditions about Tet and then Noah and I did a little lion dance. 

This year I will definitely do something at school. The parading outside was hard for me with Jonah. But it would be cool to do that too. It's just that the kids can't walk that far. Maybe I could do something on the weekend with Grace there to help? Maybe post something on Next Door to see who in the neighborhood would be interested in a lion dance? I will probably break the traditional rule of keeping the drum going the whole time. It was just too difficult last time wit limited people. 

We'll see. 

I just remember the first year feeling so alone on Chinese New Year and not really knowing what to do (again Feb Vacation.) Because basically all of my holiday associations are stuff I learned outside my own family (with the exception of red envelopes).

I'm still debating how to do the parading this year. I'm leaning toward less is more because last year was difficult for me. However I don't want to look like a wuss either because Noah's friend's mom showed up with a baby on her back and was totally climbing snow mountains and everything. Maybe I shoudl just suck it up and do what I can. It's only once a year.

If it's on the weekend and Grace can help we could totally just do the big head sometimes.

We'll see.