Every winter I can remember my mom adorning our house with these beautiful red and gold decorations. Our collection was quite modest but slowly grew throughout the years as my mom would drive out to the Asian supermarket once a year and get us something new — even if it was just some cute bowls or red envelopes. It was about an hour away from our house so she always made a day out of it. Especially because at that age, I was not keen on grocery shopping. It was a huge store with so many different sections and goods that they did not sell at our local store. Even though this place felt like a palace, my mom sort of stuck out like a sore thumb there; I could spot her blonde hair down any aisle.
I grew up without a lot of representation so I appreciated all the little things my mom did to help her interracially adopted daughter feel connected to a lost part of herself. Lunar New Year seemed like the only time of the year where I felt fully comfortably and confident in my Chinese identity. So one more thing that my mom and I would do absolutely every year for Lunar New Year was eat a lot of dumplings. We would go to this pan-Asian restaurant for dim sum, and I would absolutely devour stacks of steamers filled with them. When I was done eating my weight in those golden nuggets of happiness, my mom would have us go home for dessert.
Back home my mom would pull out wooden paddles with these delicate designs and some puff pastries out of the fridge. We would press the soft dough into the molds and sandwich them with Nutella and strawberry jelly. After a large “SLAM” the desserts would pop out of the mold. After a quick egg wash and 20 minutes in the oven, I could finally sink my teeth into the pastry. These mooncakes were certainly one of the sweetest parts of my Lunar New Year. Now, traditional mooncakes are not filled with sweet spreads but red bean paste, and they aren’t even eaten for Lunar New Year. So perhaps my celebration wasn’t the most traditional or grand, but it got to the core of Lunar New Year, and that would be family.
Now you might not be able to spend time with your immediate family for Lunar New Year while at college, but there’s plenty of great activities to do with your Ram fam. While the holiday kicked off on Wednesday, Lunar New Year lasts 15 days — there is plenty of time to celebrate the Year of the Snake. For example, on Saturday, Feb. 8 from 12 p.m. to 4 p.m. the Queens Botanical Garden will be hosting a Lunar New Year Celebration with free admission. Another event that is quite popular is the Lunar New Year Parade, on Feb. 16, starting at 1 p.m., with booths and vendors at Bayard Street (between Mulberry and Mott Street). Lastly, Think!Chinatown is hosting a few events such as a lantern celebration and a mahjong party until the 16, more details can be found on their website https://www.thinkchinatown.org/lny.
While these events can be fun, it is totally understandable if you’re a busy college student and can’t fit them into your schedule. So if you can’t make them, I would highly recommend a day trip to Manhattan’s Chinatown and doing a food crawl. The streets are covered with beautiful decorations and filled with lovely people. I am sure my mom would have loved to know she could get me a dozen dumplings for only $5.50 (Tasty Dumpling) or find the best pork buns (Mei Lai Wuh). If you’re feeling super adventurous, and by that I mean a long trip from the Bronx, you could head out to Flushing, Queens which is arguably just as rich in culture. Recently, I went to Monster DIY in that neighborhood and I made a really cute phone case and spent time with people that truly make me feel prosperous and happy.
So whether you’re eating a traditional New Year’s feast with fish and mandarins or heating up your Trader Joe’s orange chicken in your dorm oven, I hope you have a happy, safe and healthy new year.
