There are trips to the bank for crisp, untouched dollar bills; shopping excursions for new clothes; and ingredients for banh chung. Kitchens have been scrubbed until they shine and plans laid to make sure the first visitor after midnight on Friday is someone lucky.
Blending ancient traditions with modern interpretations, families throughout Orange County are celebrating the most important holiday of the year in Asian cultures: the lunar new year. Two weeks of festivities begin with Friday's new moon and last until the full moon, Feb. 23.
It is the beginning of the year 4,695 on the Chinese calendar, the Year of the Ox, one of 12 animal symbols that rule each calendar year. The ox signifies that those who work hard and put their shoulders to the yoke will be rewarded with success.
The holiday is full of symbols to pave the way for a year of health and wealth--the colors red and gold, round-shaped foods such as melons and dumplings--and, to scare away evil spirits, the noise of firecrackers and cymbals.
Catherine Yee Schwartz of Huntington Beach, who grew up in Los Angeles' Chinatown, says the new year holiday is her favorite.
The 38-year-old remembers watching the loud and colorful dragon dances, opening pretty red and gold envelopes filled with dollar bills, eating special home-cooked dishes and visiting with members of her extended family.
"People want to go back to their roots and find out who they are and what it means to be Chinese, Vietnamese, Korean. We need something our children can enjoy from our cultural background," says Schwartz, who is serving as event coordinator of the Asian Festival at Westminster Mall, a celebration featuring Asian music, theater, art and dance that continues through Feb. 16.
"It's a time of a lot of family gatherings, usually centered around food," Schwartz says. Many also usher in the new year with religious services, visits to cemeteries to honor ancestors and gift exchanges.
"Everyone wants to look their best, feel their best and be on their best behavior [during the festival], because everything you do determines your fate for the coming year," says Kristine Pham, editor of Vietnow Magazine in Irvine.
The holiday is rich in symbolic ritual. Certain precautions and traditions are observed, lest one bring misfortune upon oneself and others.
