Chinese New Year and I

The Spring Festival, commonly known as "Chinese New Year" in the English-speaking world, is a celebration of the new year and be beginning of spring in the Chinese Lunar calendar. Technically, it often falls during the winter months, but just as Spring is the season when new life begins, so also is the Spring Festival a celebration of life. For a country with over five thousand years of history, culture, and tradition, there is much to celebrate.

Spring Festival is also a time for family and it is one of the busiest travel seasons in China. It is a time for renewing connections with family, celebrating Chinese culture, and enjoying wonderful food. It is a time to see nephews and nieces that you may not see during the year, a time to visit parents and grandparents, and just a time to celebrate family for what it is: the foundation of Chinese culture. It is a time of fireworks and fun and tradition.

The topic of this essay is "Chinese New Year and I", so the question must be asked: What does Chinese New Year have to do with a 47-year-old American Computer Science professor who is of decidedly European descent? I am not Chinese (or even Asian), yet Chinese New Year is one of my favorite holidays because it is a celebration of family.

Family can mean more than just blood relationships and marriage. Family is often what you want it to be, and it is this aspect of family that we celebrate every year when we celebrate the Spring Festival. Over 20 years ago, a friend arrived in South Carolina from China. At the time he came here I did not know him, but I met him at his work where he and his family own and run a restaurant in our small rural town. I speak some Mandarin, so I would often talk to them, especially the owner because his English was very limited when he first arrived. We became good friends and often talked when business was quiet at the restaurant.

A few years later, a pretty young lady arrived from China to work there. Her English was much better than anyone else there, so she took over greeting customers and taking orders. There were several young ladies there that were various family members, so at the time I did not know that this one was going to become his wife. They married, and several years later they had a beautiful little girl, born here in the USA. A year and a half later their second daughter was born.