Happy New Year!

So, it's that time of year again. It's Chinese New Year. Tomorrow begins the Year of the Rabbit. Next year I believe is the Year of the Dragon, which I think is considered quite the big hairy deal, dragons being considered super-duper lucky. Everything about Chinese New Year--or, more properly, Lunar New Year since the Chinese aren't the only ones who celebrate it--hinges on this or that particular practice, color, or food being lucky or unlucky. It's really too much for my Western brain to keep track of. But, having a Chinese kid, I'm trying to be good and do a little observing. I'm making some Chinese food for dinner tomorrow, which mostly consists of stuff I can make and/or that Thalia has requested. If I were going to be really authentic, I'd make turnip cake and cook a whole chicken or fish. And by whole, I mean "with the head/feet/tail still attached." Because that's lucky, you see. Instead I'm going to make dumplings (that I got already frozen) and shrimp (ditto) because Thalia likes them, and orange beef because oranges are lucky and I found a recipe. But they aren't really traditional Chinese New Year foods, per se. I imagine it would be rather like a Chinese family trying to observe Thanksgiving by making hot dogs and cheeseburgers because those are stereotypically American foods. Oh, well. Now for some random observations.

1. I did at least do a bunch of cleaning in my house over the past few days. This is something you're supposed to do in the days leading up to the new year. You're cleaning/sweeping out all the old year's bad luck in preparation for the new year. Then during the two weeks of the actual lunar new year, you're not really supposed to do much cleaning because you don't want to sweep out any of the good luck. I can get behind the second part. Actually, as much as I dislike cleaning, I can get behind the first part too. It gives me a good reason to do some serious cleaning.

2. I really love genuine ethnic markets, especially when they're run by and cater to actual immigrants. The authenticity-to-cheapness ratio is just outstanding. But, they're also a little intimidating to me, especially Asian markets. There's a fair amount of food that I just can't even guess at what it is, and unless there's some (funny and stilted) English translation printed on the package, the labeling is also unrecognizable. At least in a Mexican market I can kind of muddle through, since Spanish bears some passing resemblance to English. That said, if you can get past the unidentifiable foods (and the inexplicable proliferation of Hello Kitty stuff), the supermarket at the Asia Plaza is just outstanding. I don't care how massive and good and extensive your local supermarket is, if it has to cater to a lot of really diverse tastes, you're not going to find a 50-pound (no, seriously, 50-pound!) bag of "Elephant Family" rice there. A 50-pound bag of "Elephant Family" rice, my friends, is a whole plateful of awesomeness. No cheese aisle, though.

3. One of the fun traditions of CNY is that all the kids get little red envelopes with money in them. Abra and Thalia are probably going to get $5 (remember, we're cheap!), and for Thalia's class I got a bunch of red envelopes and some chocolate coins to put in them. I'm going to skip trying to make any Chinese pastry goodies for her to take--last year I actually gave up and made German sugar cookies instead. If that's what I'm going to resort to then there really isn't any point. Obviously we wouldn't really be going through all this if it weren't for the fact that we have a Chinese kid. And I wonder if, after her silly family's years of muddled efforts, she'll actually observe this holiday when she becomes an adult.

One of the families at our school is my absolute favorite example of the perfect Cleveland Heights family: the Jewish lesbian couple with two African-American kids. One of the moms is the PTA treasurer and she once told me that at their house, they always have to keep plenty of candles around at holiday time since they go straight from Hanukkah to Kwanzaa. Later that year one of the girls brought home a holiday chart they'd done in class, which surveyed how many kids celebrated which holidays. I was struck by the fact that even though the school is probably close to 2/3 African-American, no one in that particular class celebrated Kwanzaa. I wonder if these other kids are going to be the only black kids they know who observe Kwanzaa, and only because their Jewish mothers make them do it.

Well, I'm going to go out to the kitchen and begin chopping things for dinner tomorrow night. It's unlucky to cut foods on Chinese New year, so I'm going to get it done in advance today. Side note: I actually have a hair appointment tomorrow, and I suppose that actually having someone take scissors to my hair on Chinese New Year's day will mean that I'll be crushed by a falling street light on my way to the car, but it was the only day I could get in this week and I'm desperate.

Gung Hay Fat Choy, everybody!