Far From Home

Far From Home

“One cannot make an omelet without breaking eggs.” Eight years ago, I came to the United States for my American Dream, and that was when my nostalgia for Chinese New Year started. Chinese New Year is the first day on the Lunar Calendar. According to the legend, there was a ferocious beast in China, and it came to eat people on the New Year. However, this beast wasn’t unbeatable. It feared the color red and the bang-bang sound of fireworks, so people started to hang a red lantern outside the door and light fireworks to drive away the beast. As time passed by, it formed the custom of Chinese New Year. In the United States, even in Chinatown, there are not many people that celebrate this holiday. Since I haven’t been back to China in all these years, I’m really longing for the joyful Chinese New Year of my past.

The festival atmosphere before New Year’s Eve popped up in every corner of every street in China. It is the most important holiday in China, which about one and a half billion people celebrate. In China, red means joyous, so people decorate their house with red lanterns outside the door, red couplets on the door, and red paper-cuts on the windows. Moreover, every family will stock up on necessities such as candy, snacks, and food for friends to visit. Also, every family will buy fireworks which are only allowed at this time. When people walk along the street, surrounded by the red tone decoration, shoppers, and fireworks, that’s when they know the Chinese New Year is coming. On the other hand, even in the Chinatown of Chicago, there are few lanterns hanging outside, fireworks are hard to find, and people work instead of shopping for the holiday. Sometimes I may even forget the date of Chinese New Year.

Besides the atmosphere of the New Year, the happiest moment of the Chinese New Year is when all the families get together. The Chinese New Year is the only holiday that all family members celebrate together. My family used to watch the Spring Festival Gala which is the must-see on New Year’s Eve. In the meantime, my mother and aunts made dumplings for midnight, and my father and uncles played mahjong beside. The midnight of the New Year’s Eve is the biggest moment. Children received red envelopes from grandparents, people started lighting fireworks, and most importantly, we needed to burn printed money as offerings to the ancestors to thank them for the blessing of the annual bounty. However, I would spend my holiday in jail if I burned the paper money at a corner of street in Chicago. In addition, my family is not in Chicago. I haven’t been able to celebrate the biggest holiday with them which makes my nostalgia for the Chinese New Year even stronger.

If the atmosphere and family are two sides of a triangle, then, the New Year’s Eve dinner completes it. It is not only a meal, but also the best wishes for the coming year. On the special day, people want to celebrate everything that has good meaning, especially food. The metaphors of some dishes have the best wishes for the coming year, such as fish, which means people will put away some money at the end of the year. The metaphor of chicken is good luck for the coming year. Rice cakes mean getting a promotion at work. There are plenty of metaphors of New Year’s Eve dishes, but the most special one is dumpling. The metaphor of dumpling is a blessing. People don’t eat dumplings at dinner time, but at midnight, because it significant. It means wishing all the blessings from the very beginning of a beautiful New Year. New Year’s Eve dinner and dumplings are homemade, so I never had a real New Year Eve’s dinner in Chicago because I don’t know how to cook.

Celebrating the Chinese New Year is the most joyful event of a year. For every Chinese person, it is not only a festival, but also a hope sowing. It’s like a farmer who sows a seed in the ground in spring, works hard for it and hopes to get a good result in August. For all these years in the United States, I have had to go to work on the Chinese New Year. Even worse, there is no such holiday for me here because the festival atmosphere isn’t strong enough, my family is all in China, and food is ordered from a restaurant. Not only me, it is also painful for most young men who came to the United States for their American Dreams. One day, I will go back to China to celebrate a Chinese New Year with my family, seed my hope, then come back to keep pursuing my American Dream.