We all know Malaysia is full of diversity which brings the real beauty to the overall Malaysian culture. It is like a perfect Asian melting pot where you can find the best of all the worlds you can possibly imagine. However, some of those worlds have trouble understanding each other and this has nothing to do with racial, religious or political matters, it is just the mere fact of not being exposed enough to be able to understand your fellow Malaysian neighbors, acquaintances or even friends. So for the sake of increasing awareness and understanding of the other Malaysian cultures, Roomz.asia decided to share some interesting facts about Chinese culture and their traditions during the Chinese New Year or Spring Festival.
Why Rooster?
As most of you already figured out by the huge graphics, and visual displays of random cockerels on the streets, the year of 2017 in Chinese culture is represented by the rooster thus making it the year of the rooster. Why rooster? Well according to the Chinese calendar each of the 12 months in a year is represent by an animal. The animals are (in order from January till December): Rat, Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Goat, Monkey, Rooster, Dog and Pig. The same rule applies to the yearly count. Each consecutive year is represented by each consecutive animal looping each 12 years. Different people born under each animal sign have different characters. If you want to know which year you are born in, here is the chart below:
Rat: 2008, 1996, 1984, 1972, 1960
Ox: 2009, 1997, 1985, 1973, 1961
Tiger: 2010, 1998, 1986, 1974, 1962
Rabbit: 2011, 1999, 1987, 1975, 1963
Dragon: 2012, 2000, 1988, 1976, 1964
Snake: 2013, 2001, 1989, 1977, 1965
Horse: 2014, 2002, 1990, 1978, 1966
Goat: 2015, 2003, 1991, 1979, 1967
Monkey: 2016, 2004, 1992, 1980, 1968
Rooster: 2017, 2005, 1993, 1981, 1969
Dog: 2018, 2006, 1994, 1982, 1970
Pig: 2019, 2007, 1995, 1983, 1971
Firecrackers and Red colours
Some people are very particular about their surroundings being quiet and having lots of firecrackers and fireworks banging around their heads might cause them to be a bit sensitive and irritated. Maybe if they knew a bit more about the origins of this practice they would understand that there is a good reason for throwing firecrackers in front of one’s home. According to the Chinese legend, there was a great mythical creature called Nian that would come out of his hiding once every year at the same time to attack villages and feed on its people, with children being his favourite meal. One year the villagers decided to evacuate their village but one old man decided to stay and face the Nian himself. Knowing that loud noise and red colour were Nian’s weaknesses the old man decorated the whole village with red papers and set off firecrackers which scared off the ugly monster, never to return again. Seeing that, from that moment onwards every year at the same time that Nian used to come to the village, locals would fully decorate the it with things such as lanterns and scrolls, all in red colour and setting off firecrackers to keep the Nian monster away. There are a few slight variations of this ancient story but each one has the same basis which is getting rid of the terrorizing monster using firecrackers and red colour in order to bring peace to the society throughout the following year. This is why up till today, each Chinese New Year you will see extensive usage of decorations in red colour, accompanied with the sounds of the firecrackers.
Firecrackers used during the Chinese New Year
Ang Pao (Red Envelopes)
Giving out Red envelopes with money is a very common practice during the Chinese New Year. The main rule is that the Ang Pao should be given out by married couples to children and single people. If you want to experience the culture and give out Ang Pao you need to keep the following things in mind in order to do it properly:
- Make sure you put the new bills inside the envelope since old looking and wrinkled money can portray a bad taste. This is the main reason why banks are always full prior to the Chinese New Year
- Money should be given out in even numbers instead of odd.
- Related to the previous note, while sticking to the even numbers you have to make sure to avoid the number 4 in your bills since the number ‘4’ sounds like the word ‘death’ in Chinese thus making it a bad luck to give out the amount of money that includes this number.
- You should not put coins inside the Ang Pao
- Make sure you can differentiate different Ang Paos with different bills inside and carry them with you throughout the Chinese New Year period in case you meet someone you wish to give the envelope to.
However, if you are the one receiving the red envelope, make sure you receive it with both hands as a sign of respect towards the giver and do not open the envelope in front of them because it would be seen as a very impolite gesture.
An example of the Red Envelope, so Called Ang Pao
The Lion Dance
If you visit the various malls in Bukit Bintang area during the Spring Festival or some other locations throughout Malaysia such as Penang, or Melaka, you will see a lot of entertainment events showing a dance of a fierce looking creature with an angry looking head, played by 2 people in a lion costume making some very elegant moves to imitate the Lion moves. This is the very famous Lion Dance. There are a few reasons that made this dance very popular throughout the time. One of the theories for the origins of this dance is the story of Nian we mentioned earlier. The Lion dance represents the Nian monster while the loud banging music with sounds of gongs, cymbals and drums played in the background represents the firecrackers and the noise made by the villagers in order to get rid of the monster. This was also the dance used for worshiping ancestors and to bring rains during the Han Dynasty which over time transformed into an artistic element used mostly for entertainment since lion is seen as a very auspicious animal. Lion dance often includes martial arts elements as well. In the video underneath you can see how the Lion dance looks like.
Oranges and Tangerines
Whether you’re Malaysian or not, you might miss the good Chinese New year food, and I understand if you don’t get to bump into a random lion dance on the streets or maybe not be lucky enough to get the red envelope, but one thing that you just can’t avoid seeing during this festive time are endless boxes and packages of Oranges and Tangerines. What is that all about?!
Well the story for this one is actually very simple. For Chinese and everybody who speaks this language it is quite obvious, but for those of us who do not understand it, tangerines in Chinese sounds similar to the word ‘gold’ while orange sounds like a Chinese word for ‘wealth’. As you can see a simple wordplay throughout the time inserted itself into the culture by making oranges and tangerines symbols of the prosperity and abundance during the Spring Festival. The fruit colour definitely helps the visual impact since it symbolizes gold as well.
Distribution of oranges during the Chinese New Year
Food
We are all about the food in Malaysia so we can’t avoid this particular element no matter what the occasion is. There are some dishes that are an absolute must to eat during the Spring festival. In this case, reason for eating certain foods throughout this time is almost the same as the highlight of the oranges and tangerines. We will mention just some food since covering each dish individually would be too tiring. We can’t avoid the fish. In Chinese the word ‘fish’ sounds like a word ‘surplus’ and it has to be the first meal of the Chinese New Year. In some areas, there are specific rules on how to eat fish, one of them saying, for example, that the head of the fish has to face the guests or elders as a sign of respect and that fish can be eaten only after the person facing the fish started eating it first.
Another meal is the traditional Chinese meal, dumplings and after that come rice cakes, sweet rice balls, spring rolls and glutinous rice cakes.
For Singaporeans and Malaysians one of the most famous Chinese New Year dishes is called Yusheng, a very colorful mixture of fish and vegetables. This dish includes ingredients such as: Jellyfish, Chilly, Turnips, carrots, red pepper, shrimp crackers, peanuts, parsley, sesame seeds, daikon, turnips and so on; making total of 27 ingredients! But the special thing about this particular dish lies more in the way it is eaten rather than what it consists of. The way Chinese families in Malaysia eat this particular dish is that they put the Yusheng on the table and everybody present uses their chopsticks to toss the food as high in the air as possible while at the same time saying auspicious wishes at the same time making the whole experience more meaningful and entertaining.
An example of how Yusheng is eaten during the Spring Festival
What not to do
We mentioned things that you can do during these festive times but if you are invited to visit a Chinese family which can easily happen since Malaysian families warmheartedly open their houses for visitor no matter what the background is, you should be aware of what not to do as well. Crying children are considered to bring bad luck to the families so there is a big effort to keep the kids hushed and content. Some Chinese people believe you should not wash your hair in the first couple of days of the new year because that way you would wash away all the good luck. There should be no begging or asking for loans as well. If you have seen loads of red underwear exposed in the local shops you shouldn’t be surprised because we already mentioned the significance of the red colour earlier. It wards off the bad luck so having the red underwear in the upcoming rooster year means that a badass year is waiting ahead of you.
We hope we managed to help you understand some customs and traditions during the Spring Festivals because this is what it should all really be about: Understanding, love and respect. Once we master those three skills, we all become prosperous. Roomz.asia wishes you Happy and prosperous Chinese New Year, the year of the rooster!
Gong Xi Fa Cai!
