Chinese New Year – Year of Tiger

These traditional Chinese toy tigers represent 2010 - as the year of the Tiger, which symbolises bravery

With Bite’s recent expansion to Asia Pacific, we are becoming an increasingly global family. So it’s about time we got to know our Asia colleagues, and their way of life, a little better; this weekend marks Chinese New Year, as someone born and brought up in Hong Kong, I thought I’d take the opportunity to tell you a little about this important cultural festival.

Chinese New Year (CNY) is equivalent to Christmas for Chinese people. CNY is based on the lunar calendar and starts in late January/February.  Each year is known as the year of a specific animal, of which there are 12 in total, and this year is the year of the Tiger.   The Tiger is the third sign in the Chinese zodiac and is a sign of bravery.

New Year is a time for the Chinese to visit their friends and family, and celebrate the beginning of a prosperous year.  It’s traditional to say a lot of blessings to the people you meet – you have to bless their family, health, wealth, love, career and studies for example . There are numerous greetings we use during CNY, but most non-Chinese are familiar with only one – 恭喜發財- Gong Xi Fa Cai (Mandarin) or Kung Hei Fat Choi (Cantonese).  Also, it’s important to remeber that you are not allowed to say anything negative!

Married couples have to save up before CNY because they have to give red envelopes to bless children and unmarried people. They put cash into these envelopes, so naturally we prefer soft envelopes (with banknotes) to hard envelopes (with coins)!   Instead of Christmas trees, we decorate our offices and homes with peach blossoms, mandarin oranges as well as lucky messages written or printed on red paper.  Food is a vital part of Chinese culture and we consume lots of food and sweets during CNY.   For example, we have the ‘tray of togetherness’, which consists of eight compartments (eight symbolising fortune in Chinese), containing food such as melon seeds, lotus root seeds or chocolate coins.

Images can tell you much more than words, so here’s a video I found which epitomises CNY celebrations in Hong Kong (warning: music background is a bit odd) – you can see the flower market, parade, firework display and Chinese temples.

You can hear songs everywhere (China, HK, Taiwan, plus China towns) during CNY.   This great video consists of a series of traditional songs in both Mandarin and Cantonese.  One in six people in the world know these songs!

If you want to find out more, you can get your Chinese horoscope  and find out what it means.

Let me wish every Biter a prosperous Year of the Tiger!  To all of you in China, Taiwan, HK and Singapore – enjoy your public holidays.  祝大家生意興隆，龍馬精神，心想事成！