Our Chinese New Year Celebration

Happy New Year!!!   Yes, I know it's not January first, but as some of you know my husband is Asian and we celebrate Chinese New Year.  This year is the year of the sheep or goat depending on how you translate it. 

Chinese or lunar new year is very important or the most important holiday in. The Chinese culture.  It starts on the second new moon of the winter solstice and ends 15 days later.  The new year is also known as the spring festival in China.  

This year we celebrated a few days early because of all the snow we have been getting.  I thought I would share some of the pictures from our day and answer some of the questions I have received on my YouTube video. 

This is how the table is set up. It is an offering to ancestors. There's everything from roasted duck to sweets to liquor and tea.  

This is my husband and his sister praying and making wishes to their ancestors. Molly and I did it too. You can wish for things like good health and good luck for the new year.  We each held two sticks of lit incense while we made our wishes. 

The red envelopes are used to give gifts to the younger children. These are the 3 that molly received. The envelopes are always red because the color red symbolizes good luck, energy, and happiness. Some even say it wards off evil spirits.  The importance of the envelope is not the money inside, it's the well wishes that come with it.  

These are two other set ups my mother in law does to offer ancestors. 

The last thing we did was to burn money outside. You burn money to represent money in the afterlife.  It's almost like sending a money order to heaven (that's how I look at it anyways). The money you burn ends up going to your ancestors in case they need it where ever they may be.  You can burn anything you want we even had papers with gold and silver on them and some incense.  By doing this your ancestors may bless you back with some kind of good fortune. 

We burnt the money outside then buried it in the snow. I hope I was able to give a good explanation on what I've learned about Chinese New Year.   You can check out my YouTube video here:

http://youtu.be/SGVIz_qhmXY

I love learning about other cultures, traditions, and religions.  Does you family celebrate Chinese New Year or another new year ? What are some cool traditions you have?  Leave me a comment I'd love to hear about it! 

I wish you all good health and prosperity! Happy new year <3 Meghan and Molly