“Gong Hsi Fa Tsai!”
Happy Chinese New Year!
It was Chinese New Year on Thursday and the start of the Year of the Rabbit. As some of you know, my human, Hsin-Yi, is from Taiwan and she is a Chinese breed of human and so Chinese New Year is a big holiday for her people. It is like Christmas for Western people and everybody stops work and has a long holiday and goes to meet up with their families – and human pups get lots of candy and “hong bao” (lucky red packets)…and of course (being Chinese), everybody eats LOTS and LOTS of yummies!! 
Chinese New Year is on a different day every year because the Chinese people follow the Moon Calendar rather than the Sun – but it is usually sometime in January or February. It is also sometimes called the “Spring Festival” because it was also when Chinese farmers used to welcome the spring and plant their new baby plants for next year’s harvest. (Do you remember the Moon Festival in the autumn that I told you about last year? That was when Chinese farmers brought in the harvest).
If you are living in Taiwan or China or Singapore or Malaysia or Hong Kong or the many other countries with lots of Chinese people, then Chinese New Year is a really exciting time with lots of celebrations in the streets and special yummies and decorations and presents and firecrackers and other crazy stuff!
There are many special things you must do (and mustn’t do) before and on Chinese New Year. For example, before Chinese New Year arrives, you must make sure that you have:
- cleaned your home completely – this will sweep away all the bad luck that happened in the old year and make way for good fortune in the new year
- paid all the money paper that you owe other people
- make up with any family, friends, neighbours or business partners if you have had a fight with them
This means you go into the new year with a fresh start, with no yucky things following you.
And then on the night before Chinese New Year, all the family must come back to have a big dinner together, where you eat special Chinese New Year yummies. You also set some yummies aside for the “ancestors” – all the grandmothers and grandfathers and aunties and uncles who have died but are still watching over you – so that they can “eat” with you and you can remember them and respect them.
At midnight, everybody lights lots of Chinese firecrackers which are not the kind which make pretty lights in the sky – instead, they make big Bang! Bang! on the floor and lots of smoke and they scare all the evil spirits away – and you must open every door and window in your home to let the old year go out.
When Hsin-Yi was a human pup living in Taiwan, she loved Chinese New Year’s Eve because that was the only night that human pups were allowed to stay up all night – everybody stays up the whole night to play board games and cards and chat and eat yummies. Hsin-Yi always tried really hard to stay awake until sunrise but she always fell asleep in the end!
The next day, on Chinese New Year, you put up lots of special red posters in your home, like on your front door and on the walls - these have special Chinese words written on them to bring good luck. Some words are stuck upside down because the word “upside down” in Chinese sounds like the word “arrived” – which means the good luck & fortune has arrived! 
You also put lots of red and gold everywhere in your home – red because that is the colour of fire (which will drive the evil spirits & bad luck away) and also the colour of happiness, and gold because it is the colour of wealth. Everybody also has flowers in their homes – they choose the ones which are just going to open because if they open on New Year’s Day, then that is very good luck for the new year! 
All the human pups get very excited on New Year’s Day because that is when they receive “hong bao” – lucky red packets – from their mummies & daddies and uncles and aunties. You keep getting the hong bao until you are married (then you have to start giving it! ) Traditionally, inside the hong bao is one crisp new money paper – but now, people often give more! Bosses also often give hong bao’s to the people working for them.
There are some special things you must do (and mustn’t do) on Chinese New Year’s Day too, because the Chinese believe that what you do at on New Year’s Day will affect what happens to you in the rest of the year…so you have to be very careful! For example:
- Everybody – especially human pups – must wear brand new clothes & new shoes and it is best if you can wear RED!
- You must greet everybody you see with “Gong Hsi Fa Tsai” in Mandarin (or “Gong Hey Fat Choy” in Cantonese) which means “Wishing You Wealth & Prosperity” – especially when you are giving out the hong bao’s!
- You mustn’t sweep the floor or clean on New Year’s Day otherwise you might sweep all your good luck away for the new year.
- You mustn’t wash your hair otherwise you will wash away all your good luck for the new year.
- You mustn’t say bad words or nasty things to people – and you mustn’t say the number “4″ – which is “shr” – because that sounds similar to “death” in Chinese
- You mustn’t borrow or lend anybody money paper – otherwise you will be borrowing or lending for the rest of the year!
- You mustn’t use knives or scissors or other sharp things.
- You mustn’t cry on New Year’s Day otherwise you will be crying all through the year – so it is the one time human pups are allowed to be as naughty as they like and they never get a Telling-Off!
Of course, now many people don’t follow these rules anymore but Hsin-Yi says it is still fun to try and follow some of them! (I still got a Telling-Off, though, when I was naughty on Thursday…humph! Not fair! 
)
On Chinese New Year’s Day – and the days after – it is the time to go and visit all your neighbours and friends and family, and take them gifts – so that there is a warm, happy feeling everywhere.
When you visit somebody, you must take them some oranges & tangerines because they are gold colour and so “symbols of wealth & good fortune” - and with the leaves still on so that your friendship will remain whole and unbroken.
For the people who have guests visiting, they must give them some candy and sweet snacks and nuts – in a big round tray called the “Tray of Togetherness”.
It is a bit sad I don’t have any new friends yet in Newcastle – if we were still back in Brisbane, I could go and visit my friends Phatso, Benji, Luca, Molly, Lupe & Loki!
My humans don’t have any new friends or family here either – but that’s OK – Hsin-Yi said we could just celebrate Chinese New Year ourselves!
There are some special shows and celebrations for Chinese New Year. The most famous shows are the Dragon Dance and the Lion Dance, which bring good luck. Hsin-Yi likes the Lion Dance best – she thinks the Chinese Lions look so cute! Well, they don’t really look like Western lions – in fact, many people think that they were modelled on the Pekingnese doggie! They are very mischievous and do naughty things as they dance around. And they can even flutter their eyelashes and waggle their ears!
There are 2 humans inside the Lion costume – one holds the big, heavy head and is the front half of the Lion and the other is the bum and the back half of the Lion. (Hsin-Yi always feels sorry for the person at the back because they must bend over the whole time – they must have a very sore back! 
) They don’t dance to music but just to drums and cymbals.
Although it looks like a fun dance, it is actually quite hard to do because they must do all these special steps but still act like a Lion the whole time. Usually, it is people who have been trained in kung fu who do the Lion Dance – because they have to be very strong and do big jumping steps and rolling over and climbing on each other.
Newcastle is not a very big city and there are not many Chinese people living here (unlike in Sydney!) so there aren’t many big Chinese New Year celebrations but Hsin-Yi was very happy because on Thursday, they had a Lion Dance in the Newcastle City Library! It was performed by human teenage-pups from the local high school who had been training in kung fu and it was great fun to watch! Lots of mummies brought their babies and little human pups to watch…
I didn’t get to go because doggies are not allowed in the library but Hsin-Yi took a short movie so I could see and show you the Lion Dance!
Of course, this is a very simple version of the Lion Dance – there are some very fancy ones. In fact, in Malaysia every year, there are even competitions for Lion Dance with people coming from lots of countries – and they do really amazing dances there, on poles! Yup! Can you believe it? They have to do the whole dance jumping from pole to pole…it is amazing how they never miss a step!
Here is a short movie to show you – aren’t they amazing?
When Hsin-Yi came home from watching the Lion Dance, she started preparing the yummies we were going to have for our Chinese New Year meal!
It is very important to eat certain foods on Chinese New Year – like you must always eat FISH & CHICKEN, because these symbolise “prosperity” and “abundance”. But you mustn’t cut the fish up at all – it must be whole, with head and tail and everything, for “completeness”. Same with the chicken – you must have it whole, with head and feet and everything!
People also like to eat NOODLES because they symbolise “long life” although again, you mustn’t cut them up at all. In fact, you shouldn’t really cut up any of the food – like vegetables must be stir-fried whole, with stems & leaves together, and not chopped up into smaller pieces.
Other special things to eat at Chinese New Year are dumplings and spring rolls. Hsin-Yi’s mummy, MaMa, can make 500 dumplings in one night! 
But Hsin-Yi doesn’t know how to make them…she CAN make spring rolls, though! Hsin-Yi says they are not actually that difficult to make – and she cheats because instead of chopping up all the cabbage and carrots herself, she just buys ready-made bags from the supermarket -hee! hee!
You do have to get special ‘spring roll pastry’ which you can usually buy in the supermarket freezer section – and you also have to make up a paste of flour & water, as a glue to stick the ends of the spring roll together, after you have rolled it up!
And then you have to deep-fry them in oil, until they are golden-coloured and crispy! It’s very important that when you take them out of the hot oil, you must put them standing up in a colander so they can get air around them and the oil can drain away. If you just squash them all on top of each other, they will get all soggy and yucky, instead of nice & crispy. After they are dry, then you can put them in a pile on a plate.
You can put whatever you like inside spring rolls – like chicken and shrimp and pork and even rice noodles too (and some people even put cheese! ) - but Hsin-Yi likes them with just vegetables best. You can dip them in sweet chilli sauce or in soya sauce with ginger, chilli and spring onions – and a dash of sesame oil!
(* By the way, if you’re wondering what that weird, long red dress that Hsin-Yi is wearing is – it is a ‘jalabiyah’, a kind of Arabic dress for ladies. They are usually very fancy with embroidery on the front but there are also simple, cotton ones for wearing at home. Hsin-Yi grew up in Dubai and this is what lots of people wear at home there because it is all loose and comfy and the coolest thing to wear when it is really, really hot! )
Now, of course no Chinese New Year meal would be complete without fish! But Hsin-Yi was feeling a bit stressy about cooking fish because to cook a whole fish Chinese style – which is deep-fried or steamed – you need to have a really big wok and it makes a big mess in the kitchen and the house stinks of fish for days afterwards! So then Paul had an idea – he said we should just order the fish from our local Thai takeaway restaurant – let them cook it in their big kitchen and then deliver it to our door – and we can just eat the yummy fish with no stress – hee! hee! (Shh! Just don’t tell MaMa!)
Hsin-Yi decided not to cook noodles too because that was already lots of food and she said we wouldn’t be able to eat it all and there would be too much leftovers (huh! She didn’t ask me! I DID offer to help with all the leftovers but she said even my cast-iron stomach might not cope! )
As usual, my humans get to sit down and stuff their faces with the yummies first – humph! So unfair! I have to sit a “polite distance” away from the table and wait…I can tell you, I was making big puddles with my drooling!
But then my humans said I could have a spring roll. Yay!
Actually, I had never had a spring roll before and so whenever I eat something new, I always spit it out first to inspect it carefully!
Mmm…it smelled very yummy so I quickly gobbled it up!
Can I have another one? Please?
After dinner, you are supposed to eat a special “Nian Gao” (Glutinous Rice Cake) for dessert. This is a very, very sticky cake made of glutinous (sticky) rice, brown sugar and sometimes Chinese dates, chestnuts and other dried fruits – and like most Chinese cakes, it is steamed rather than baked. In fact, it looks more like a pudding than a cake!
The Nian Gao also has a special job to do – you see, at Chinese New Year, the Kitchen God will make a report on each family to Heaven and so people would make an offering of some Nian Gao to the Kitchen God – so that it would stick his mouth together and then he couldn’t report nasty things about the family!
Hsin-Yi’s grandmother, Amah, used to make Nian Gao’s herself and they were super yummy. But now not many people know how to make them anymore and you usually buy them from the shops. (If you’re interested, here is a page with a recipe: http://www.foodmuseum.com/chinesenew.html)
My humans didn’t let me have any Nian Gao because it is really, really sticky and so they said I might choke on it! I did try to get a sniff, though – and my nose got stuck to it!
Well, I hope you have enjoyed celebrating Chinese New Year with me and my humans. The festival of Chinese New Year actually goes on for 15 days…until the Lantern Festival, which is on the 17th Feb this year - so you still have lots of time to go out and eat Chinese yummies and visit your friends & family with happy wishes!
Happy Chinese New Year!
Happy Chinese New Year!
Thanks for sharing your traditions, they are really interesting and you know, I think we should apply them too to our New Year!
At this moment in time it is mostly a change of the calender, in this way instead you give it a much more deeper meaning!
Love to see that your human does some cooking! Would love to taste one of her spring rolls!
My human always takes them when she goes to the restaurant but she also believes that probably that is no longer real chinese food… Not that it is not nice, but she believes they try and adapt it to the Italian tastes… She still thinks she would love a trip to Taiwan with your human … they seem to have a certain understanding on some matters… do you know anything? Well I just know for sure that I would be left here so I am not interested!
PS: we are alike, I also spit anything before eating it unless I am 100% sure what it is … is it a Dane’s trademark?
Love
Lucille
Happy Chinese New Year!
Are rabbits the same as bunnies? I’m hopin not cause I really don’t want this to be the year of the Bunny
Mom luvs spring rolls! And that rice cake looked absolutely scrumptious!
One hungry dude waggin at ya,
Roo
I lOVED reading all the traditions. All the “rules” give the celebration so much purpose.
What a fantastic holiday. Can I come to Australia next year to eat some of HsinYi’s food? YUM!
Happy New Year to you all!
I learned lots from reading this post. Thanks for the info.
I think Honey’s very sensible to inspect new foods before eating them.
Did you know that here in Melbourne we have a very old Chinese dragon? It’s one of the oldest in the world.
whew..for a minute there we thought that YOU were in that Lion Suit, and we were totally in Awe! Maybe next year. Happy New Year to you and your hoomans.
gussie n teka
Happy Chinese New Year to you all!
We loved that post so much -- the fish looked delicious!
We love Chinese food here so its a great excuse to be able to cook it every night for the past few days!!
We took some photos of Clive celebrating Chinese New Year but we forgot to put them up the other day with all the fuss about the competition we’re trying to win for Assistance Dogs for Autism. But we’ll send you a photo of Clive now on your FB page!
Again Happy Chinese New Year to you all!
- Clive & Co
Happy Chinese New Year! We really enjoyed reading about it. I hope you find lots of new friends this year! It must be so stressy moving so often. Our human says that she’s now hungry for spring rolls and Thai food.
Happy Chinese New Year! We celebrate the Chinese New Year here too but our humans have done away with most of the “dos” and “don’ts”, so it’s just like any other day except that we have some visitors, our humans’ brothers, sisters, nephews and nieces, who are here for lunch.
Happy Chinese New Year!! Looks like so much fun -- especially the eating all that yummy food part!!
Thank you so much for this post Honey! Mum loves when Hsin-Yi does her posts all about Chinese customs and you tell it so well!
Happy New year!
~lickies, Ludo
“Gong Hsi Fa Tsai!” Thank you for sharing and teaching us about Chinese New Year. We learned things we didn’t know before. We are so glad it’s a Rabbit year, maybe it will be more calm than last year was.
Gong Xi Fat Chai, Honey, Hsin-Yi and Paul! My people too have just finished a frenzy of Chinese New Year rituals. The mommas made loads of peanut cookies and egg tarts. I’ll leave you some for a bit of a taste test. Let me assure you, they are absolutely yummy!
I’m so jealous you get to celebrate Chinese New Year with your humans. Hopefully one day I’ll be able to cope with meeting new people, and go with the Mommas and the Papa for CNY reunion dinner!
we did chinese new year dinner last night at pop pops house. the problem with chinese food is NO BREAD AND BUTTER!!!!!! this is barbaric!!!
i did get some ice cream though.
woo wooo slobber dribble (Gong Hey Fat Choy in dane speak)
love
bubba
We are always struck by how beautiful your family is, but my mom person giggles a little at Paul’s green & white house shoes!
We wish that we had such rich traditions to celebrate. The culture is very beautiful.
I hope you get more goodies!
Nubbin wiggles,
Oskar
Hi Hsin-Yi and Honey,
Thanks for sharing your Chinese New Year with us….I was shocked when I saw Hsin-Yi cooking…I didn’t think that she really cooked..most impressive. My mom makes spring rolls as well….yes she is a Polish breed of hooman but she used to live on Guam and learned alot of different cooking techniques while there. We also cheat and use the pre-chopped bag of cabbage and carrots as well (saves lots of time) we also put in either shrimp or pork in ours and use a homemade sweet & sour sauce for dipping….oh mom says she is getting hungry now. If you are ever in the Chicago area mom said she would take you to this seafood restaurant near her work that has the best whole seabass fish steamed with soy sauce, ginger, black beans and other spices…it sure is yummy. Did you know that when eating the whole fish that they have cheeks and that the cheek fish meat is very yummy. We found that out one day while eating there. I think they said it is usually reserved for the elders of the group eating the fish. Have you ever heard of this?
Enjoy your New Year’s Celebration and talk to you soon.
Denise & Kasha the Dainty Great Dane
Happy Chinese New Year Hsin-Yi, Paul and Honey!
Thank you for this post, it is very interesting reading, as I have never really understood much about the Chinese New Year before. Here in Auckland we have the Chinese New Year lights festival in Albert Park, every year we mean to go, but haven’t made it there yet!
Your food looks delicious!!
Oh and mom also noticed Paul’s slipper shoes….he’s quite the fashion plate isn’t he?? (Just joking Paul). My hoomans wear Crocs that are lined with material as their slippers in the house.
Ha Rooo!!
AAARF Kasha the Dainty Great Dane
Honey
“Gong Hsi Fa Tsai!” to you too!!!!!!
You look bootiful in youw new celebwatowy outfit and I’ wish I was wif you to eat all those incwedibully yummie looking special foods.
I hope you and youw family have wondewful luck and health all this yeaw!!!
smoochie kisses
ASTA
Happy Chinese New Year! Thanks for sharing the traditions! It is wonderful to learn abou tother cultures with out having to actually be there!
That lion dance on the poles was amazing! The one in your library was cool too! Meowm especially like the fluttering eyelids and ears!
Wow! so much i’ve learned. so many superstitions! they’re always fun to learn! you guys look really happy there. you’ll have friends in no time!
Kung Hee Fat Choy!!!!
Growing up in Hawaii, there’s a lot of Chinese people there so we always celebrated Chinese New Year… we didnt have all the food or do all the traditional stuff (we did all the Japanese stuff on New Years Eve -- Dec 31), but I love gau… Haven’t had it since I moved to Seattle! Our office in Hawaii always has a Chinese Lion dance come through the office (usually 2 lions) and we’d hang money around our desk to feed the lion for good luck!
Honey, youre too funny! Darwin does the same thing with new treats. It’s always so funny! I love your outfit too! Where did Hsin-Yi find a Chinese outfit to fit you?!
Happy Chinese New Year!
I loved reading about your traditions and seeing all that yummilicious food you enjoyed!
Kisses and hugs
Lorenza
Happy Chinese New Year -- great post, so much to learn about this special celebration. Mom wishes her trip to Vegas had been one week later -- all the hotels were gearing up for Chinese New Year’s -- the decorations were just phenomenal. Your meal looked so delicious. Thanks for sharing.
Woos ~ Phantom, Thunder, and Ciara
Happy Chinese New Year Honey, Hsin-Yi and Paul !
It looks like you had fun especially being allowed to have a yummy spring roll, lucky girl.
Loved the videos of the Lion Dancers especially the talented pole dancers and the moving eyes and ears of the lion in the library … so cute. You guys will have some new friends in no time am sure
Slobbers and best wishes, Benji and Cheryl
Happy Chinese New Year.
That was such an interesting post. I learned so many new things about Chinese New Year.
That dinner looked delicious. I fancy a spring roll myself.
Kisses, Sparta XX
Gong Hsi Fa Tsai! Happy New Year! Mom is drooling over the yummies -- she might actually get motivated and make some spring rolls; she hasn’t made them in years (not since she was a pup, actually), but you’ve got her thinking! Although she’s going to pass on the whole fish (she’s not big on eating things that still have heads on them -- even shrimp with heads on creep her out!
) I don’t think we’d be able to manage all the things you can and can’t do -- I think Mom would get confused!
But speaking of Mom being a pup, I didn’t know your Mom grew up in Dubai -- my Mom grew up in Saudi Arabia (Jeddah -- her Dad worked for Saudia -- actually, he worked for TWA, and they were consulting with Saudia…)! Of course, that was a zillion years ago (my Mom is ANCIENT!), but that’s so cool!
Thanks for sharing your celebration with us!
*kissey face*
-Fiona and Abby the Hippobottomus
Hi Honey! Thank you for sharing this special time with us! Ooooo All of those Chinese yummies look so good! Mommy says she is going to try and make sring rolls. She likes to eats sushi. I think I would too if she let me have any! What a lovely way to celebrate the new year!
Licks,
Ruthie
I love the lion dances! That was really cool when the lion stood on it’s hind legs in the second video.
I always enjoy reading about Hsin-Yi’s heritage, thanks for sharing all about the Chinese New Year!
Gong hsi fa tsai Honey and family!
My human and I both loved this post (and we were both drooling just a little bit over the spring rolls…). My human saw the lion dance and fire crackers at in Melbourne’s China Town last week. I think I would have peed my fur with all that noise.
Wishing you lots of luck, prosperity and happiness in the new year!
Happy Chinese New Year Honey, Hsin-Yi and Paul. Even though you didn’t have family or friends to celebrate with, thanks for sharing this holiday with us, your blog family. The food looks delicious, yum! Take care all, no worries, love Carol.
Happy Chinese New Year to all. I enjoyed reading about all the customs. I took my human pups to a Chinese New Year celebration, but it was all too loud and overwhelming for Mr 10, who has Aspergers Syndrome. Too much noise makes him feel sick, scared and emotional. It was a pity as his sister and I were keen on trying all the yummies. That was a great idea re ordering in the fish -- genius!
You did have a great time
This was really interesting to read! I am very interested about the different countries traditions (and of course also my own country’s
). The food looks just delicious! And I would really like to taste someday that Nian Gao. It sounds very interesting and delicious 
(And I noticed you have same plate as I have, that black one with Nian Gao on it. I had the whole set from my mother and they are my “better” tablewares which I use for example on Christmas and other special occasions.) Spring rolls I know to be very tasty. I love them! And I would like to learn to make them too.
So it’s a rabbit’s year then. I’m a rabbit in chinese zodiag
I wish you a very good New Year! Or like you would probably say: Gong Hsi Fa Tsai
-Lilli-
Happy New Year! And all of the food has made us hungry.
Hi Honey -- Thank you for your fab post. We paid tribute to it and thought about everyone celebrating it…but we did it in a little way (Vikki made something from her Chinese cookbook!) Love the photos and your human was very clever to order the fish in! The 2011 year of the ‘white metal’ Rabbit is predicted to be (unlike the explosive year of the tiger) “a year of placidity and respite where little will be set in stone; a carefree happy year that will be both temperate and relaxed.” Vikki read on some website that thinking about the year of the rabbit: “It is not the size of this animal that makes sense for the whole year, but its inner nature. It looks like we’ve got quite sophisticated period with gracious manners and sensitivity.” So maybe 2011 year is all about intuition, patience, concentration on things and not to be in a hurry.
“The Hsin Mao 2011 year symbolizes sensitivity, prudence and wealth earned with hard work. 2011 year is a dutiful, family oriented and dependable year. 2011 year of the metal Rabbit, may show his love in terms of how hard he can work for the loved ones. Now in 2011 year of the Rabbit you may not express your feelings in words but make up it by deeds.”
So here’s to a gentle and gracious Rabbit Year ahead..where actions will speak louder than words!. Thank you for your great explanations about the traditions and ‘superstitions’ -- totally understand them -- they are so clever -- we should listen to them more and we hope we will follow them next year!
——————————————————————————--
That is too awesome! I learned a lot of stuff I never knew about the Chinese New Year.
It sounds like a lot of fun. We should celebrate it here so we can celebrate twice. 
Great pictures and I wish I could try some of the food. I’m picky though so I’m not so sure I’d like it, but I would try. Actually it made me hungry hehe.
The videos were great!! That is soooo cool what they can do. I’m so impressed. It looks like the Chinese New Year is a lot of fun.
Happy Chinese New Year Honey and all!
Your food looked so yummy! =)
Happy Chinese New Year! Gong hsi fa tsai! Thanks so much for the wonderful window into an unfamiliar holiday. Honey, you are gorgeous in your red -- collar? whole cheong? Each of you contributed something festive: Honey’s red collar, Hsin-Yi’s jalabiyah, and Paul’s snappy slippers. Mama has a cousin-in-law from the Philippines who makes delicious spring rolls, and now they’ve become a family tradition at all our Thanksgiving and Christmas celebrations.
The lion dancing is incredible. It was really nice of the local high school kids to put a dance and costume together, and very professionally done! The competitive dance was fantastic. And when the “rear” dance is not all bent over, he’s supporting the front end by lifting it up and dipping it down, while balancing on poles he can hardly see. Wow!
Jed & Abby also spit out new food to check it out before they eat it, so it’s not just Danes. We think it’s just prudent and only puppies or starving doggies will gobble down just anything.
Jed & Abby
Happy Chinese New Year Honey and to yous hoomans Hsin-Yi and Paul!!
Goodness, we just loved reading about all the wonderful traditions you have. So detailed and beautifully written.
We love to learn things new and we didn’t know a lot about all the details involved in the Chinese New Year celebration.
Very cute ‘dat yous hooman got bagged lettuce and take out fishy.. hee hee
Our Momma can appreciate ‘dat.. especially since hers not really cook much.. (Daddy Man cooks)
Loved all the little bits about organizing and cleaning and paying debts and not saying mean things or crying on ‘dat day.. very interesting tings..
We enjoyed reading this and sharing in your traditions~
hugs,
IzZY, Josie, TriXie and Anakin Man
wow! it’s always great fun to read your posts!
being malaysian chinese, or rather, a “Banana” as they called it here (yellow on the outside, white on the inside!!), i think i can only remember less than half of the new year tradition
so, gong xi fa cai to you all! shen ti jian kang
Oh happy New Year to you all! We loved reading about the history and the culture--but mostly --the food! We are really impressed with Hsin-Yi’s cooking even if she did cheat a little because we have seen other posts about her not-so-great cooking. hehehe. Thank you for the comments on my blog--yes I am a lot taller than my new sister Maggi--she is a very small little wolfhound for what we are use to--although it is not always obvious in pictures. Guinness
Hi Honey -- Happy New Year to you and your humans, Hsin-Yi and Paul. I love how sweet you look in your red
:) My human Diane was also drooling over all that yummy food Hsin-Yi made for your special meal -- I’m glad you got to try a spring roll -- yyyuuuuummmmmy -- they are so good.
I wish you and your humans a very Happy New Year -- may it be filled with good treats, lots of long walks, cuddles, and slobbery hugs all around.
Best Wishes!
Indy Bones and Diane
I was so happy to see you wearing red, Honey. My mom wore red on the 5th also. She had to wear yellow on the 4th for my human brother Jeffrey’s birthday, because it’s his favorite color. It does look like you and your humans had a wonderful celebration. As my humans’ Chinese friends say to them, “Gong Hey Fat Choi!” (They live in New York City’s Chinatown, a place I’ve never been.)
Happy Chinese New Year to my favorite Great Dane and her Chinese human!
Drools,
Thor
Hi Honey,
Happy Chinese New Year!
Those spring roles look very yummy! Chinese culture is very interesting
your pal,
Diggles
Happy Chinese New Year. I hope the year of the rabbit is a good year for you all.
My human really enjoyed reading about your traditions and why things are done the way they are -- you’ve taught her lots of new things in your post.
Woofs,
Riley
I want you to know how much I really enjoy and appreciate the details you put into so many of your stories. I had no idea Chinese New Years was 15 days or the significance of red and gold! Love the photos and oh dear, I am so hungry now after viewing your photos!! YUM! Hope your settling into your new home now.
Happy Chinese New Year, to you guys!!
Love the post; and what wonderful pictures -- looks like Honey really enjoyed that spring roll!
Rudy’s Raiser
P.S. If you have time, furry please stop by our blog; Rudy has been entered in a contest -- and needs all the votes he can get!!
Mum says she remembers helping you make those spring rolls at your house in New Zealand and they were really YUM. And now she is drooling looking at the pictures. How undignified.
Hi Honey, Happy Chinese New Year. Sorry I haven’t stopped by for some time. Mommy is on vacation in Taiwan now. It is her first time spending CNY in taiwan since she left for the US many many years ago. She got to see all the chinese new year traditions mentioned in your post and eat yummy new year dishes (Nian-Tsai). I, on the other hand, am staying home with daddy. I ate boring dog food (no egg rolls for me) and daddy had frozen dumplings. I miss mommy!
Mommy remembers Hsin-Yi mentioned in her taiwan trip post about doggies going into restaurants in taiwan. She also saw that during her visit. It made her eyes wild open and jaw drop…
Hope you and your family have a wonderful year of rabbit in New Castle!
wags,
Preston