In the United States, parades celebrating the Year of the Pig took place after the first day of the year. And the Asian Student Union from SF State co-hosted for the first time an event at Stonestown Galleria on Feb. 24.
“People were celebrating with their family and friends that weekend, so we decided to have the event a week after,” said Christine Jiang, internship coordinator and co-chair of the ASU at SF State.
According to members of ASU, some New Year traditions include cleaning the house, wearing warm colors or the lucky color red, and not cutting or washing hair are important traditional tips for Chinese people to follow in the celebration.
“If you cut off your hair on the day, you are cutting off your luck. In the same way if you wash your hair, your wash away good luck,” said Jiang.
But the purpose of celebrating these cultural holidays in the United States is to share with other ethnicities traditional and cultural differences.
Room in the center court in Stonestown Galleria was very limited, but two vibrant dancing lions were able to dance around the crowd, showing the Asian community’s pride of the celebration of the Year of the Pig.
“This is important to understand different cultures and to pass it down to the children and to future generations,” said Joshua Hu, 12, who participated in the dancing lion performance at Stonestown.
“It is a community event. An event for our shoppers,” said Keith RaGadio, assistant marketing manager of Stonestown Galleria.
Typical Chinese celebration of the New Year includes red color decorations, music, performances and food, but it is not exactly the way Chinese people celebrate in China.
“Chinese New Year celebration in China is more traditional, like more private and family-oriented. In the United States it is more commercial,” said Jiang.
Xin Jia, 40, owner of a Chinese restaurant in San Carlos agreed on the fact that this holiday became profitable for her business.
“I had to work. We served dinner to some of the families who came to celebrate the Year of the Pig with their family members,” said Jia.
New generations, for example, some Asian students from SF State do not follow every detail of their tradition when they are living in the United States and sometimes away from their immediate family.
CJ Duh, 28, a graduate student of psychology, said that her family lives somewhere else; therefore, she spent New Year with friends of hers.
“You might have somebody to go with, so I went to one of my friend’s family,” said Duh.
Jannifer Hau, a senior business administration major, couldn’t be reunited with her immediate family because they live in Chicago.
“I had dinner at my aunt’s house with my cousins,” said Hau, also member of the ASU at SF State.
According to Jia, who immigrated to the United States in the 2001, the traditional celebration of New Year in China is different from the way Chinese people celebrate in the United States.
Shooting off firecrackers before dinner on New Year’s Eve is symbolic in China because it sends out the old year and welcomes the New Year, according to Jia.
“After fire works, New Year's Eve and New Year's Day are celebrated as a family affair, a time of reunion and thanksgiving,” said Jia, “The celebration is traditionally highlighted with a religious ceremony given in honor of Heaven and Earth.”
