新年快乐 万事如意 (Xīn nián kuài lè wàn shì rú yì)

Roughly translated, the Teochew phrase above means, “Happy New Year! Ten thousand things will go according to your will, thus whatever you want to accomplish will be done.”

My family is Chinese, specifically Teochew or chiu chow. We are Chinese but heavily influenced by Vietnamese culture. Before coming to the United States, my maternal family escaped Vietnam during the Fall of Saigon or Black April in 1975.

For the longest time, I never knew what my cultural background was. My mother never explained it to us as kids and never talked about her homeland much. She always told us we were Chinese. “But we have Vietnamese last names, Mom?” Things never made sense.

It wasn’t until I entered college and joined my school’s Vietnamese Student Association that I learned about Black April and the Fall of Saigon and my mom’s evasiveness about her history made sense. This is also when I discovered the Teochew culture, and I finally understood. Everything finally made sense. I also met a few other people that were also Teochew. It was until I was 19 that I finally understood my culture and family history.

Now that I know how uncommon Teochew people are, I embrace my culture so much more.

With that said, tomorrow is Lunar New Year, one of the biggest cultural celebrations in the Chinese and Vietnamese culture. Tomorrow’s Lunar New Year is mainly celebrated by Chinese and Vietnamese people whereas Cambodian and Thai people celebrate their New Year on a separate day, usually later in the year.

There are a handful of superstitions/traditions that are followed in order to maximize the amount of good luck vested upon you.

The specific traditions my family follows is:

• DEEP clean before Lunar New Year
• Visit the temple and pay respect to the gods and/or your ancestors
• People that are married give those that are not married and younger red envelopes (called “ang bao”)
• Children and/or single individuals receive red envelopes
• On the day of:
  • Don’t clean, sweep, or do laundry
  • Don’t cut your hair
  • Don’t wash your hair
  • Don’t fight with anyone
  • Don’t cut your nails
  • Don’t wear a black top
  • Wear red
  • Don’t get any teeth pulled/dental work

The featured photo are custom red envelopes created by an Asian-American and female-owned small business: The Juice Box Club. These ang baos are incredibly cute and the packaging felt so personal. I love supporting small businesses, especially those that are Asian and female-owned.