Every year, Asians celebrate a festival called the "Lunar New Year" but for a specific group of Asians, the Chinese, it's called "Chinese New Year". While many people celebrate the beginning of the new year on the days of December 31st to January 1st, Asians, especially the Chinese, celebrate between the 21st of January and the 20th of February, as it is the start of the Lunar New Year and the new moon. Attached with the Chinese New Year celebration, each year has an animal from the Chinese zodiac that is its "mascot" for that year. This year, the Chinese celebration that happened on Saturday, January 28, 2017, was the Year of the Rooster, which is the year my youngest brother was born in.

Of course, this traditional celebration has been going on for many many years. The most popular color to wear for the Chinese celebration is red. Red is the sign of good fortune, happiness, long life, and wealth. I'm not sure if any of you are familiar with the Chinese celebration or have friends who celebrate it, there is a red envelope called hóngbāo which contain money and are passed out after the reunion dinner. It is most common for adults to give these out to children as well as married couples giving it to their unmarried juniors. Traditionally, the red envelopes contain amounts of money of even numbers, however; the Chinese tradition, especially when celebrated in America, has changed to giving out any amount the giver sees fit. In China, it is not rude for children to ask for a red envelope from a married couple or adults. In America, the tradition has slowly dropped as it may be seen as rude for a child to ask for money from an adult.

This year, the Chinese celebration was held at my house. We had so much food and by the end of the day, we still had leftovers left. We had duck (Beijing Peking duck), fish, seasoned tofu, Chinese broccoli, roasted Chinese barbecue pork, roasted chicken, and noodles. It's a tradition during the Chinese dinner to have as much meat as possible and that is exactly what my family did. The Chinese celebration is typically a reunion dinner where everyone in the family comes to meet and has a family get together.

There is also the tradition to take family portraits of everyone before and after we eat. The tradition is also to dress in a Chinese traditional outfit. However, because my family, or rather the younger generation, is brought up as Asian Americans, we have dropped that tradition, especially when we are eating so we don't have to get the outfits dirty. So instead, we took a family portrait before we ate with my family that had already arrived.

During dinner, and even after, we all sat around and talked with each other. We had many laughs while we were eating. My brother who is in Pensacola, FL for his Marine training wasn't able to make it to our dinner so we had FaceTimed him instead. He was jealous that we were having all these wonderful food but we were glad that we were still able to video chat with him. After dinner, we had a chocolate and vanilla marble cake, which was very delicious by the way, and looked at old pictures as we talked about the old times. It was an exciting and wonderful evening with my family. I'm glad I was able to come home for the weekend to celebrate Chinese New Year with my family.