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Health & Fitness

Gung Hay Fat Choy!

Happy Year of the Dragon in Carroll Gardens

I love Chinese New Year!  It’s fun and festive and it’s a perfect remedy to the winter doldrums.  If you saw me, you might wonder why I love it so much, but my last name will probably give you a hint. I didn’t really know much about Chinese New Year until I started dating my husband, Mike, over 25 years ago.  When he first took me to visit his aunts on Henry Street in Manhattan’s Chinatown, I was delighted to receive my first red envelope (hung bao).  They explained to me that this was only given to unmarried children so maybe it was a good thing that we didn’t rush into getting married back then.  I also remember cowering in their vestibule while Mike and his cousins set off what seemed like thousands of firecrackers in front of the house.  Much to the chagrin of the Chinese community, that tradition was outlawed during the Giuiliani administration.

People who know me wouldn’t be surprised that I have embraced another holiday filled with old customs and, of course, food!  Chinese New Year, also known as the Lunar New Year, takes place in late January or early February and lasts 15 days.  It is the biggest Chinese holiday on the calendar, one which requires lots of preparation.  It’s important to go to the bank for new bills which are used to stuff into those red envelopes.  I am often the only non-Asian in line at the Citibank on Mott Street, waiting to get my “good luck” money. 

The next stops are the stationery stores, Uni, located at 63 Bayard Street, which has the more intricate, popular character envelopes, and Good Field Trading Co. at 74-B Mott Street, which carries New Year greeting cards and the more traditional red envelopes, some with family names on them. Considering that Mike is the “most un-Chinese, Chinese person” (his own words) you will ever meet and cannot speak or read Chinese, we scored some big points with his eldest aunt when we gave her granddaughter a red envelope with the “Eng” family name on it.  The stationery stores also sell typical Chinese New Year decorations like banners, dragons, lanterns and clusters of felt firecrackers.  After that, we hit Kam Man Market on Canal & Mulberry Streets or one of the large markets in Brooklyn’s Sunset Park.  Or we might go to Sahadi on Atlantic Avenue.  While not an Asian market, it has most of what we need.  We pick up tins of biscuits, pistachio nuts and a variety of candies.  Next up is the fruit and vegetable store to buy a box of oranges.  Oranges are very popular because the Chinese word for orange sounds just like the word for wealth.  The oranges and sweets are given as gifts to usher in a prosperous, sweet New Year.  Finally we buy some fresh flowers.  The streets of Chinatown are teeming with people carrying red carnations, gladioli and flowering branches home on Chinese New Year Eve.  Even though it's the middle of winter, these flowers help us look forward to spring.

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Good luck, prosperity, and abundance are the continuing themes of Chinese New Year.  The predominant color is red, which symbolizes fire.  It is believed that the red will ward off any bad luck that may be hovering around.  Many people wear red clothes for this holiday.  Ironically, it was one of my oldest friends, RoseMarie, Italian-American like me, who bought my son, Matthew, a pair of beautiful red silk pajamas for his first Chinese New Year.

Another custom is to completely clean your house before Chinese New Year because if you sweep after the start of the holiday, you might sweep away your good luck.  Each year is signified by the animal whose sign appears for that year on the 12-year cycle of the Chinese zodiac.  January 23rd, 2012 will begin the Year of the Dragon.   I was born in the Year of the Pig, which is hardly flattering.

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While I can’t say that I know how to prepare a Chinese New Year meal (I really can’t cook Chinese cuisine at all), I do know how to enjoy a meal, so we usually go to Chinatown to celebrate.  Our favorite place is Hop Lee located at 16 Mott Street.  The food is great and the waiters are friendly.  They also have a nice Chinese New Year menu.  Most dishes served for the holiday are replete with symbolism.  They include longevity noodles which signify a long life (never cut them), a whole fish which represents abundance, chicken with black mushrooms which stand for wishes, and soup with dried oysters and black algae (fat choy). 

This is really different from the Americanized Chinese food I had while growing up when we always went to our old favorite, Richard Yee's of Avenue U, now sadly closed.  My son, Gabriel, was born on the cusp of Chinese New Year 15 years ago and we will be celebrating his birthday this year with a big family dim sum at Pacificana in Sunset Park.  We will then go home for cake, oranges, and sweets laid out in a red lacquered tray.  We’ll also have some delicious jasmine green tea that my sister-in-law sends me from California each year.  The kids will get their red envelopes from the adults, including my Italian mom and aunt.  The more red envelopes they receive, the luckier they will be!

It’s a particular pleasure to give out those red envelopes.  Even if sometimes there’s only a crisp dollar in them, people are usually so happy to receive them.  I remember giving red envelopes to the young sons of my dear Hassidic friend.  One of her sons asked his mom in Yiddish why I was giving them gelt!  My brother-in-law saved every single red envelope he got when he was dating my sister.  I’m not sure how lucky that is if you never spend the money! 

We are also hoping to catch one of the parades this year that travel through all of Chinatown.  My very spry, 84-year old mother-in-law, who still travels to Chinatown from The Bronx on her own, loves the parade and never misses it.  

If you’re walking around Carroll Gardens and you see a house with Chinese New Year decorations with a lot of noisy relatives, many of them Caucasian, dressed in red, it’s probably our house.  I’m grateful for the kind way my husband’s family welcomed me all those years ago and for the way my family welcomed a whole new set of customs.  Gung Hay Fat Choy, a happy, healthy and prosperous Chinese New Year to you all!

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