Kung Hei Fat Choy – Happy Chinese New Year
This past Sunday, February 14, was Valentine’s Day and also the Chinese New Year. The day went down in the history as one of the most unique days to occur in this century. Since 1900, Valentine’s Day and the first day of the Chinese New Year have only coincided three times.
The Chinese New Year falls on a different date each year because it is based on a combination of lunar and solar movements. It usually occurs in January or February. This is the year of tiger; as you may not know, each year on the Chinese calendar is assigned an animal from the Chinese zodiac, which rotates on a 12-year cycle. People born during a specific year are thought to have attributes of their particular animal – tigers are confident, daring and unpredictable, for example.
Kung Hei Fat Choy means wishing you prosperity and wealth. The Chinese have one of the richest and colorful traditions in the world and one of their most anticipated celebrations is the Chinese New Year. The Chinese New Year is a celebration of change … out with the old and in with the new!
For my family, we did not do anything special yet to celebrate the New Year, instead we focused more on Valentine’s Day. In the afternoon, my daughter and I went out and picked out a card and a dozen roses for my wife; I think she approved.
On Tuesday, we will celebrate Chinese New Year at all DCs and you won’t want to miss it. The evening will include a traditional lion dance, and special food such as Peking Duck, Suckling Pig, Orange Chicken, and Longevity Noodles, plus 11 other items, not to mention Red Envelopes stuffed with a $5 gift card that will be given out to 125 customers at each DC.
The Chinese New Year’s celebration is always my one of my favorite events; just to follow the lion dancers (UMass students are some of the performers), to visit each DC and to share the joy of the night with others, makes it memorable evening. I look forward to seeing you.
This is Ken Toong and thank you for keeping UMass Dining at the top.
Ken Toong
Director
Contact Ken at ktoong@mail.aux.umass.edu
You can follow Ken Toong on Twitter at: http://www.twitter.com/KenToong