Lunar New Year Rituals

Lunar New Year for my Taiwanese family is about returning home, spending time with my family and feasting. We bow to our elders and receive red envelopes filled with $$$. We eat noodles for long life, fish for abundance, dumplings for prosperity and a special green vegetable. My Hakka family makes tang yuan soup to symbolize a ‘full’ life.

In Taiwan, we return back to our family temples and bring food to honor our ancestors. We pay respect to them with food, incense and firecrackers. In America, we go to Manhattan Chinatown, launch firecrackers on Mott Street and follow the lion dancers who bless each storefront.

In BTB feng shui, we activate the new year with different rituals and blessings. We clear spaces with orange peels, we write our wishes and place them carefully in our house to manifest them and we shed our past year with a Golden Cicada ritual. I love the symbolism here for starting fresh in the new year. We set our altars to bring in new, positive energy.

These days, I combine all of these rituals and intentions to create my own hybrid celebration as I raise my mixed race family in New York. I love how the feng shui rituals become an extension of my Asian heritage. It provides a way for me to connect with my family abroad when we are unable to return to our family temple and be with them.

Of course, we will feast all week: at home, in Chinatown and at our beloved corner restaurant Leland, who will be transforming their menu to an all Asian menu this week! https://www.lelandbrooklyn.com/

yuuuuummm.

What rituals and celebrations do you have for Lunar New Year?