The Lunar New Year is an opportunity to highlight our artists and share their stories and traditions with you, which you can read below. We wish you all a happy Lunar New Year and hope you enjoy your reading.

Yu Qin

How do you celebrate Lunar New Year?

The Lunar New Year is the most important holiday in China. Over 15 days, families travel from all over to reunite and celebrate together, sharing a special dinner on New Year’s Eve and decorating their homes in red for good luck.

What traditions do you observe?

In my hometown in southern China, we always serve fish for the New Year’s Eve dinner, symbolizing abundance (“Nian Nian You Yu” 年年有余  “May you always have more than you need”). We also prepare Niangao (年糕), sticky rice cake representing progress, and Tangyuan (汤圆), sweet rice balls symbolizing reunion and completeness.

Among the other traditional dishes, in Northern China you’ll find Jiaozi (饺子), dumplings shaped like ancient gold ingots, symbolizing wealth.

What are the highlights of the celebration?

Among other notable traditions, several involve staying up until the stroke of midnight to welcome the New Year, setting off firecrackers to scare away bad luck, giving children lucky money in red envelopes, and visiting family and friends on the first morning.

 The celebrations end with the Lantern Festival (元宵节 Yuánxiāo Jié) on the fifteenth day of the New Year.

What is your Chinese zodiac sign?

My sign is the Goat (or Sheep). You can check your own sign using this checking website : https://www.chinahighlights.com/travelguide/chinese-zodiac/chinese-zodiac-calculator.htm 

Jini Choi

How do you celebrate Lunar New Year?

In Korea, the Lunar New Year (“Seollal” 설날) is a family holiday during which relativesgather at the eldest uncle’s house on the father’s side. Multiple generations come together (parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins) for a lively, crowded, and joyful celebration focused on family bonding and tradition.

What traditions do you observe?

Food plays a central role in Seollal. Many families prepare an abundant table filled with traditional Korean dishes and sometimes hold ancestral memorial rituals. The food is often arranged following traditional rules, like “Hong-dong-baek-seo” (홍동백서), with red foods on one side and white foods on the other.

My favorite moment is the day before Seollal, when the family gathers to make a variety of jeon (전, savory pancakes) all day long. 

On New Year’s Day, we eat tteokguk (떡국, rice cake soup), which traditionally marks getting a year older.

People usually wear hanbok (traditional clothing 한복) and play traditional games like yutnori (윷놀이), sometimes with small friendly bets to make it competitive.

What are the highlights of the celebration?

During Seollal, children perform sebae (새배, deep bow) to elders and receive sebaetdon (새뱃돈, money) in return. As a child, it meant visiting relatives, bowing, and collecting envelopes.

What is your Korean zodiac sign?

I was born in the Year of the Pig. This year is my Samjae (삼재) year, traditionally considered unlucky, but I take it lightly, just being cautious and jokingly blaming minor mishaps on it.

Pei Yao

How do you celebrate Lunar New Year?

For me, Lunar New Year is a meaningful family celebration, starting with a lively New Year’s Eve dinner with family, followed by the clacking of Mahjong tiles as we stay up until midnight to welcome the new year and exchange those iconic red envelopes! The festivities continue as we host relatives on the first day, and on the second day, we welcome my married sister back home, a tradition in which daughters return to their family roots.

What traditions do you observe?

This Lunar New Year, I’m sharing the traditions I grew up with in Taiwan. To us, the holiday is about more than just a date; it’s about ‘Good Luck’ and ‘Sweetness’.

We eat rice cakes, inspired by the saying “Tsiàh tinn-tinn, kuè hó nî” (吃甜甜，過好年), wishing for a sweet and joyful year. Fish is served whole, with a little left over, as it symbolizes surplus and lasting abundance. We also enjoy tshài-thâu-kué (radish cake), since chhài-thâu sounds like “good luck.” Finally, we greet each other with Kiong-hí huat-tsâi!, wishing prosperity and wealth for the year ahead.

What are the highlights of the celebration?

The true highlight is simply being together. As we grew up, work and life made family time rarer, so Lunar New Year has become a precious moment to reconnect and share meaningful, quality time with cousins, siblings, aunts, and uncles.

What is your Chinese zodiac sign?

My zodiac sign is the Sheep.

Christine Pan

How do you celebrate Lunar New Year?

Every year, we celebrate Lunar New Year in simple, familiar ways, mostly with family. A few days before, I gave my home a thorough clean. It’s tradition to start the year fresh, so cleaning feels like resetting my space to welcome the new year.

What traditions do you observe?

On New Year’s Day, we usually visit a temple to receive a spiritual reading based on Chinese zodiac astrology. It’s time to receive insight into the values and themes for the year ahead. I don’t take it too literally, but I value the pause and reflection. While there, I often get a handwritten calligraphy blessing on red paper. The characters are carefully brushed by a calligrapher and are meant to bring luck and positive energy for the year.

What are the highlights of the celebration?

Later, we stop by the Chinese market to pick up ingredients for our evening hotpot. In the evening, we visit family and friends to exchange red envelopes. Married adults traditionally give red packets to unmarried relatives and younger friends as a gesture of blessings and good luck.

We end the day gathered around a bubbling hotpot filled with meats, vegetables, seafood, and noodles. The highlight for me is sitting around the table together, cooking, and sharing food. It’s relaxed, communal, and a comforting way to begin the year.

What is your Chinese zodiac sign?

I’ll keep my zodiac sign a mystery this year and focus on the celebration itself.