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Your Passport To Adventure! |
NEW
YEAR CELEBRATIONS IN DIFFERENT PARTS OF THE WORLD
By Estela I. Dorn, Executive Director
As typical of Mobile International Festival, we enjoy sharing different cultural experiences not only during the three-day event, but different times of the year. This time, it is experiencing different New Year celebrations right here in Mobile. Many countries celebrate New Year by following the Gregorian calendar which is the first day of the year. However, in other countries they either set it around spring or the harvest season or follow the lunar calendar. There are many similarities among different countries in the traditions of these celebrations. In keeping with this year’s theme, “World of Languages”, you will find authentic words from these different countries. They are used here to give you a vivid description of their celebrations.
Have your Passport
to Adventure ready as we embark on our travels to Vietnam, China,
Iran, Cambodia, Thailand and Laos.
CHINESE NEW YEAR CELEBRATION
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Kung Hei Fat Choi is the normal greeting during the Chinese New Year. It means, “Congratulations and be prosperous!” However, since there are so many dialects, the New Year’s greeting can be said differently depending on which region one is from. Inflections in the Chinese dialects also make a difference. Chinese New Year is celebrated in Mainland China and other countries and territories with significant Han Chinese populations such as Hongkong, Macau, Taiwan, Malaysia, Singapore, Vietnam, Philippines, Indonesia, Laos, USA, Australia and Canada. Cities with Chinatowns celebrate New Year in a big way that includes a Lion or Dragon dance. There are fireworks and firecrackers. Symbolical decorations are predominantly displayed in commercial and residential buildings. Food is very important like the luo han zhai (Buddha’s delight that is an elaborate vegetarian dish served on the eve and first day of the New Year). Gift giving of red envelopes containing money is traditional. And most importantly is the family bai nian (visitations) and gathering. Chinese New Year, Lunar New Year or Spring Festival is based on the Chinese calendar. New Year’s Eve is known as chu xi.
In Mobile, the Liu
Institute International celebrated the Year of the Tiger Chinese New Year
on February 14. They had food, martial arts exhibitions and Lion dance.
Liu Institute International under the leadership of Shifu
Shawn Liu celebrates this annually. By the way, the Lion dance, tai-chi
and Kung Fu martial arts exhibitions are seen
at Mobile International Festival every year.
VIETNAMESE NEW YEAR CELEBRATION
Tet Vietnamese New Year is also known Nguyen-Dan. The celebration lasts seven days. And in Mobile, the Vietnamese community celebrated Tet on February 7th at the Denton Middle School Auditorium and February 14th at the St. Monica Catholic Church Community Hall. Truat and Nhung Nguyen invited Estela Dorn and Alex Harris from Duke University to Denton Middle School for the celebration.
New Year preparations include cleaning and decorating the house; buying new clothes and pairs of shoes; paying off debts; and resolving differences among family members and friends. Le Tru Tich is a special ceremony at midnight. Firecrackers and sounds from gongs are heard to bid good-bye to the old year and welcome the New Year. It is the belief that what one does during this occasion foretells the person’s luck and fortune. Homes are adorned with hoa mai, a yellow blossom representing spring and happiness. A cay neu is planted in front of their homes. A bamboo pole with no leaves is used for this purpose and taken down on the seventh day. It is wrapped with colored paper and decorated for good luck.
As was evident at the two venues in Mobile, it was a time spent with family members and friends. Laughter was heard everywhere. Children were playing. Pho noodles in soup with vegetables and meat and other noodle dishes and lots of sweets like banh chung or banh tet (rice pudding with mung beans and pork inside) were sold.
Tet Vietnamese New Year, which is the Year of the Tiger, follows the Chinese Lunar calendar.
PERSIAN NEW YEAR CELEBRATION
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Mahin and Reza Hejazi opened their home again to the traditional celebration of Chahar-Shanbeh Soori, one of the traditions of the No-Rooz (New Year) celebrations. It is held Tuesday eve before No-Rooz which means New Day and is the exact astronomical beginning of spring. This exact second is Saal Tahvil. The Iranians have been celebrating No-Rooz for at least 3,000 years and is deeply rooted in the rituals and traditions of the Zoroastrian beliefs. This was the religion of ancient Persia before Islam in the 7th century A.D.
What are some of the rituals and traditions of No-Rooz? They start by cleaning their houses (khaane tekaani). Then they set up an important center piece of the house which is a table setting of Haft Seen. There are seven items starting with the letter “S” that are placed on this elaborate setting – seeb (apple), sabze (green grass from wheat or lentil), serke (vinegar), samanoo (a meal made out of wheat), senjed (a special kind of berry), sekke (coin), and seer (garlic). Sometimes the vinegar is replaced with somagh (sumac, an Iranian spice). Also on the table are a bowl of gold fish, a mirror with lit candles as a symbol of fire, Qoran, Divan-e-Hafez (poetry book of Hefez) and, recently, the Shahnameh of Ferdowsi (the Epic of Kings). Iranians kiss each other on both cheeks while wishing each other, “No-Rooz Mubarak (Happy New Year)”. They give presents to younger children. They visit family and friends, especially the elders. Then on the 13th day of No-Rooz, a sizdah bedar is held outdoors. Persians leave their homes to go to parks or mountain side for a festive family picnic.
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What is the most significant on Chahar-Shanbeh Soori eve? Bonfires are lit and Persians and guests (young and old) leap over the fires with songs of merriment. The elders are helped by others to jump over the fire. They sing, “Sorkhi-e to az man” and “Zardi-e man az to”. Literally, they mean, “I will give you my yellow color (sign of sickness) and you give me your fiery red color (sign of health)”. The jumping over the fire is a purification rite and suri means red and fiery.
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CAMBODIAN NEW YEAR CELEBRATION
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As Heang and Phally Chhun have done in the past, an invitation was extended again to MIF to celebrate Chaul Chnam Thmey (New Year in Khmer-Cambodian language) in the grounds of the Wat Veluvannaram or Wat Valuvanna (wat is a temple) that is located on South Angkor Road, Irvington. The Cambodian community’s three-day celebration was from April 16-18. It was festive with so many Cambodian families present. The children and young adults were on the grounds playing and listening to music while the adults and monks were inside the Community Center where the ceremony was centered. The children were dousing each other with plain water using a water gun and spraying shaving cream as tradition dictated.
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Moha Sangkran is the first of three days of Chaul Chnam Thmey. According to their belief, God’s angels come down to earth. To welcome the angels, the Cambodians clean and light up their houses. Buddha idols with incense sticks, bowl of scented water and fruits are placed on an altar at their homes. Vanabot is the second day. This is the gift-giving day to family members that includes alms to the poor. Leung Sakk is the third day. People wash all the Buddha idols with scented water. It is during this ceremony that everyone walked around the big altar of Buddha idols and sprinkled scented water on the idols. Each MIF member was given a plastic cup filled with scented water and a flower to dip and sprinkle the water. After walking around the altar, all of us proceeded to the line of monks and elders who received sprinkling from us and they, in turn, did the same thing to us and the others. A greeting of best wishes for prosperity, health and happiness accompanied each sprinkle. This special bath to the Buddha statues, monks, elders, guests and everyone is called Pithi Srang Preah.
Members of the community prepared the food. These were served in small bowls and offered to the monks and priests of the temple. After they ate, then it was time for the community to eat. These bowls were placed on long tables where everyone sat around the tables and partook in a communal meal.
Before we left, Heang and Phally gave us a tour of the Wat Valuvannaram.
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THAI NEW YEAR CELEBRATION
Songkran is New Year in Thailand. It was celebrated from April 13-15 and was set according to astrological calculations. Songkran falls on the hottest time of the year in Thailand. It is a word in Sanskrit meaning “a move or change”. Preparations for the Songkran start the day before (Wan Sungkharn Lohng) when they clean their houses and don new clothes to welcome the New Year. On Wan Payawan (second day), all statues of Buddha are washed with scented water. They visit temples and shrines to offer gifts, fruits, sweets and food to the monks. Another custom is releasing birds from cages and fish from bowls back into the river because it is believed that this brings good luck. On the third day (Wan Parg-bpee), they pay homage to their ancestors and elders.
In Chiang-Mai, Thailand, a special Songkran procession takes place. Buddha statues are carried through the procession. There is singing and dancing all around. The celebration is incomplete unless water is thrown at each other. Buckets of water are carried by people and children play with water guns. This water activity is to get rid of bad luck and welcome the New Year and while they douse people, they wish everyone, “Sawatdee pi Mai”, which means Happy New Year!
In 2008, Noklae
Band from Chiang-Mai came to celebrate MIF’s 25th anniversary.
The band consists of Hmong children who are musicians,
singers and dancers. This band is now well-known all over Thailand –
not only in Chiang-Mai.
LAO NEW YEAR CELEBRATION
Laos celebrates their Pii Mai Lao (New Year) approximately the same time of the year – April 13-16 this year. It is one of the Hid Sip Song (12 traditional festivals) and one of the biggest and most famous of festivals in Laos. However, in Mobile, the celebration of the Lao community in Irvington is on April 30-May 2 at the grounds of Wat Buddha Vihara. Traditions and customs for the three countries (Laos, Cambodia and Thailand) are very identical like cleansing of the Buddhas; setting up of altars; offering of food to Buddha and the monks; visitation and paying respect to the elders, family members and friends; and blessings of the poor and sick. The dousing of water and spraying shaving cream at each other is also typical. The symbolism is the same as the other two countries above (Cambodia and Thailand).
As I have experienced in the previous years, there will be typical Lao food, dancing and merriment, games and honoring of the monks. The monks will be in formation in one line where the community line up to express their best wishes and vice-versa while being sprinkled with water. On the third day, close to noon, a Phra Phrome parade will be held that will circle the grounds of the temple. I am sure there will be young people dressed in traditional Lao attires who will ride the floats. And loud music will be blaring from the floats. Everyone will be excited!
And never one to
be left out, I lined up to receive blessings from the monks, danced with
others, ate delicious food, got doused with water, and had shaving cream
smeared all over my face! What an experience!