Celebrating
Chinese New Year is really fun! Let me tell you about it! I'm Sherry Zeng a
girl born in U.S.A. but most of my family was born in China. I discover that
in China they have a lot more things to do for Chinese New Year than we do here
in America! In the morning when you see anyone you say to them this phrase:
"Good morning, how are you?." Then you say, "Gung Hay Fat Choy!"
You'll have a nice breakfast too. You don't even have to go to school or even
work for a whole week! So they get a lot of time to celebrate New Year and spending
time with your family. Some families after their breakfast will go to the graveyards
to clean their ancestors headstone, but others will go visit their relatives,
but my family said that you should go shopping in the morning best, so that
you won't have to wait in lines for certain things! Then in the afternoon my
family will go to their relatives to visit. They eat their lunch at their closest
relatives that they communicate with! Also in the afternoon they also give out
lucky money to each other for luck for the coming year!
When
my mama and her family are finished with lunch they get back home and do crafts
that say good things. Near dusk my mama's village will get together at the center!
Everyone will bring food to eat like a potluck. Also my mom's friend and families
and everyone will get to see a play for what Chinese New Year is all about.
When the play is over the leader of the village and other important people will
give a speech to say in front of all the villagers. After the speech they will
eat different kinds of food like noodles, fry rice, choy, fish, crab, snakes
intestines, lobsters, roast pork and much more.
Time for America! When my mother came to America they still kept some of the traditional things they did in China. Most things had changed though since you don't get work off for Chinese New Year or school off! Today my family and I will go to a get together at Ocean City restaurant at around 5:00 in the afternoon. We get to eat a lot like roast pork, and Duck! The soups are great too. Sometimes I think that going there is a pain in the neck but I usually enjoy it since we get to do some things that are fun! We don't get school off for it so we don't get much time for the decoration or anything. We don't even do things we used to do any more because we don't have time! But I think I'll get use to it that we don't get to do things they do in China!
My mummy always says that Chinese New Year is so fun because she gets different things and new things and clothing for herself and brothers. She thinks that being here in Seattle she doesn't get to do much stuff with her family because now she doesn't have much time for it, but the one thing that never changes is that everyone she knows will give her a lucky money for the coming year!
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