How to Celebrate Spring Festival

　　New Year's Eve

　　Like the western Thanksgiving, the New Year's Eve dinner is a time for all members of the family, even those who live far away, to gather together. The dinner is frequently called wei lu 'surrounding the fire stove'. This is because there was traditionally a fire stove under the table to provide a very warm and cozy atmosphere in which the whole family could enjoy eating and chatting.

　　The meal itself consists of ten to twelve courses which are not only delicate and tasty, but also rife with symbolic meaning. There are dishes to symbolize health, wealth and good fortune, and like the decorations, it is because they are homophones with lucky words. For instance, fish symbolizes surplus because the word for fish sounds the same as the word for surplus in Chinese. Many Americans are surprised to learn that the fish Chinese people choose to eat on New Year's Eve is usually a carp. Its name, li, has the same sound as the word for profit. The mustard green, which is known as chang-nian-cai 'long-year vegetable' in some dialects, naturally symbolizes longevity. Dishes made with turnips indicate good fortune because the name for turnips, cai-tou, also means 'good luck' in some dialects. There are many other symbolic foods, but one of the most significant is Chinese dumplings, which because their shape is similar to ancient Chinese gold and silver ingots, symbolize wealth. The chef typically hides a coin in one dumpling while cooking. Whoever ends up with the coin is supposed to become the luckiest and most successful person in the year to come, that is, of course, if they don't choke on it.

　　Handing Out Red Envelopes

You've heard the phrase "Christmas is for kids." Well, Chinese New Year is also quite child-friendly. After the New Year's Eve meal all children receive red envelopes stuffed with money from their parents and adult relatives and friends. The money in the red envelopes is known as ya-sui-qian 'suppress-age-money', which indicates an attempt to keep children young; Chinese people count their age according to the lunar new year, so all the children will become one year older overnight! Some adults also