From February 17-23, I had a week off of school because of Lunar New Year. In the U.S., Lunar New Year is not usually a big celebration where I would get the day off. Normally, the Chinese Department at UC Davis would host a dinner or a small gathering for students. Once, I went to San Francisco to visit Chinatown during the Lunar New Year to experience the celebration in a more authentic environment, but it still could not compare to the way Hong Kong celebrated it. For locals, the new year is an event spent with family, where you receive red pockets filled with money and eat lots of yummy food. For me and my other exchange friends, it was spent at touristy events and festivals, admiring the red-colored decorations that flooded the city.
I learned about the Lam Tsuen Wishing Tree tradition in Tai Po, Hong Kong. It is a local folk practice where people write their wishes on paper, tie the paper to an orange, and throw it into a banyan tree’s branches in hopes that their wish will come true. I participated in this, and it was very fun!
