What’s your favorite Lunar New Year tradition?

One of the staples of Lunar New Year is the color red, whether it be red clothes or the signature red couplets and “fu” decorations in the weeks preceding the big celebration. Aside from cultural customs, students at Burlingame enjoy the more personalized, family traditions during Lunar New Year.

While Lunar New Year is celebrated worldwide, it’s most vibrantly and widely observed in Asian countries. Junior Michelle Shay cherishes the intimate, family-centered traditions during this special time. Having lived in China, she recalls the warm feeling of reuniting with her family after a long year apart.

“We don’t have any direct family traditions, but we always have people playing Mahjong or playing Poker in the room,” Shay said. “The younger kids hang out together, and we also [celebrate with] fireworks and red envelope passing.”

On the other hand, sophomore Ethan Chen has a more complicated relationship with his Chinese heritage. Throughout his life, Chen said was weighed down with a sense of cultural ambiguity: while Chen is ethnically Han Chinese, his grandparents are from Burma, making it difficult for him to clearly identify himself with strictly one side.

“My parents and my grandparents, and even great grandfather were born and raised in Burma, so I never felt like I was Chinese,” Chen said. “Celebrating Chinese New Year just felt like a nice way to reconnect with that part of my identity.”

For Chen, this year is his first time celebrating Lunar New Year.

“My favorite [tradition] is before we eat the meal. We had to flip [two] coins until they landed heads and tails, and we were just sitting for so long,” Chen said. “I was so hungry, but my grandma refused to let us eat until the coins landed on the right side, so I was just waiting. As tempting as it was, it was nice just to be a part of the tradition… I believe that if it lands heads and tails, it means the ancestors are satisfied.”