BY LESLEY SUSSMAN | Got your egg rolls and dumplings yet? If not, you better hurry up. The Chinese Lunar New Year has begun.
The celebration started Wednesday night when thousands of Chinese throughout the city — and millions throughout the world — rang in The Year of the Sheep with lots of food and festivities.
According to the Chinese zodiac system, sheep symbolize the energy of generosity, patience and peacefulness. The goal of the sheep is to create harmony and beauty within the home and family.
That’s why on Wednesday night, Chinese families — as has been done for centuries — gathered to kick off the 15-day holiday by celebrating family life and to honor household and heavenly deities as well as ancestors.
They also cleaned house to sweep away ill fortune and make way for good luck, and decorated businesses and homes with red-color paper cuttings that signify good fortune, happiness and health.
A traditional firecracker ceremony will burst to life on Thurs., Feb. 19, at 11 a.m. in Sara D. Roosevelt Park. And the Chinatown Lunar Year Parade will step out on Sun., Feb. 22, at 1 p.m. In general, there will be a slew of cultural performances in Chinese communities throughout the five boroughs over the next two weeks.
Not that they were “following the herd,” but Chinese community leaders and others generally said they were wishing for peace, health and happiness for everyone in this Year of the Sheep.
Wellington Chen is executive director of the Chinatown Partnership Development Corporation, an organization that seeks to unite local residents, business owners and community groups under the common ongoing goal of rebuilding Chinatown post-9/11.
“It’s a big deal,” he said of the Lunar New Year. “It’s a combination of Thanksgiving, Christmas and the Western New Year all combined into one.”
Asked what his organization’s wishes were for the city’s Chinese residents, Chen said, “I want everyone to be safe. I wish everyone health and prosperity — and that includes non-Chinese people as well. Health is especially important. As the Chinese like to say, ‘When you have health you have everything.’ ”
Wan Yu Tam is secretary of the Chinese Consolidated Benefit Association, the oldest service organization in Chinatown, established in 1883. He said he and his organization wished all residents in the area “a peaceful and healthy new year — and a wish that taxes won’t be raised like crazy.”
Dian Dong is associate director of the Chen Dance Center, at 70 Mulberry Street, a leading Asian American arts institution established in 1978. She said her wishes for the Chinese community this Lunar New year were “peace, creativity and a wish that we all be kind to one another.”
And what would Chinese New Year be without food? Which is why one of the wishes of Elsa Gao, manager of Congee Village restaurant and bar, at 100 Allen St., was that more non-Asians stop by and sample the delicious foods of China.
“Besides introducing Westerners to some of the delicious foods of China, I also wish everyone — including myself — financial abundance and a wonderful family life,” she said. “I also want every customer who eats here to leave with a full belly and a healthy one.”
A few blocks away, at the Pu Chao Buddhist Temple, at 20 Eldridge St., Taing Dee, a monk at the temple, said he, too, wished the Chinese people everywhere a “happy New Year, with lots of peace and health.”
“I wish for the healing spirit of Buddha to be with everyone,” he said, “and that the spirit of brotherhood be established throughout the world.”
Actually, in addition to a sheep, the Chinese zodiac symbol for 2015 can also be interpreted as a goat or ram, leading to a bit of confusion.
Regardless of the sign of the horoscope, though, one thing is unchanging at each Lunar New Year, namely the hearty wish of Gung hei fat choy, or Have a happy and prosperous new year!
