Tomorrow begins the Spring Festival celebrating the year of the Rat considered to be a lucky year ahead. A huge 20% of the world's population celebrate CNY, and the holiday begins tonight with dramatic fire works displays around the world making it the largest one day fireworks display on earth! The tradition is to scare away evil spirits to make way for all good things for the year ahead.
The two week holiday concludes with the Lantern Festival on Saturday, February 8. In between families celebrate with reunion dinners bringing folks together to feast on the many tasty foods of CNY.
I was lucky enough to witness CNY first hand in Hong Kong for both the Lantern festival with its giant lighted lanterns displayed in the Kowloon park along Victoria Harbor. They are similar to the balloons shown in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade on a smaller scale, yet more unique and plentiful. Gorgeous!
For the Spring Festival there is a parade in Kowloon with celebrities and amazing floats. They build stadium seating just for the parade, if you are lucky enough to purchase the limited tickets which I did in 2016 the year of the monkey. The parade broadcasts on TV, and the hosts were stationed directly in front of our viewing seats. During commerical breaks they blared out Uptown Funk, which remains a kind of happy ear worm for me!
The Cantonese greeting for CNY is: Kunghei fatchoy! (pronounced: Gung Hay Fat Choy)
Here are some fun food and tips to ensure you have a prosperous and auspicious CNY.
- It is good luck to give red envelopes of money to family and friends.
- You should clean your home thoroughly before CNY to allow good luck to enter.
- Do not clean on the first and second day of CNY or you will be sweeping the good luck just acquired away!
- Wear red colored clothing, not black or white during the first two days those colors are associated with mourning.
- Purchase a new broom for the new year - makes a great gift, too.
- Eating a whole fish symbolizes abundance.
- Serving and eating dumplings is considered to resemble coins so pile them up!
- Mandarin oranges are popular decorations and food as they are round and gold colored like coins, too.
- Avoid being ill or the victim of crime during the holiday or it means you are up to a challenging year ahead.
Here is a delicious, easy Chicken Fried Rice Recipe from Chef Ken Hom, from Chicago and restaurateur and TV celebrity in London:
Link to recipe courtesy of The Telegraph: Ken Hom Chicken Fried Rice Recipe
For a great traditional dessert, I share again the pineapple tarts from author Cheryl Lu-Lien Tan, from my blog from last year's celebration. Her amazing book about Singapore with recipes can be purchased on Amazon, A Tiger in the Kitchen. Click here to order Cheryl's book
Pineapple Tarts Recipe in this Blog
Kunghei fatchoy Everyone!
And. . . Bon Appetit!
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| CNY Greeting from Disney HKG |
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| Hong Kong Fireworks CNY 2016 |
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| One of the many HKG malls decorated for CNY |
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| One of the floats in the CNY parade. |
