Celebrating Lunar New Year in Canada

This Saturday the Vietnamese Student Association will be celebrating Lunar New Year. A tradition kept for many centuries by East Asian countries, originating in 1700s China. 

Collectivism is prominent in Asian cultures, and they bring it with them wherever they go. Duc Hong Lee, founded VSA in summer 2018. He wanted to create a platform for Vietnamese students in Fredericton to connect, make them less homesick, and make it feel like home. This helps them preserve culture and solidify their identity as Vietnamese.

“The Lunar New Year is basically the most important event for Asians. If you imagine what Christmas is for Canadians, that is how important Lunar New Year is to us Vietnamese,” said Michael Phan, Vietnamese Student Association President,

“And during that time we normally have family gatherings, we enjoy food, we enjoy time together, and sing songs. So, yeah, it’s really big,”  he added.

Historically, Tet  (another name for Lunar New Year) was a way to pay respects to ancestors, putting a break between harvesting and sowing, and spending time with family. There are a lot of customs practiced during Tet such as visiting a person’s house on the first day of the new year (xông nhà), ancestral worship and wishing New Year’s greetings to your neighbors.

Other traditions include gifting children and unmarried adults, red envelopes with good wishes and money. Red color represents good luck and is said to ward off evil spirits, while the money is given to attract wealth for the upcoming year.

The famous Chinese legend behind this celebration tells about a monster called Nian. It attacked villagers on the first new moon of the year. To ward off the evil fiend, villagers did three things that scared Nian. They covered everything in color red that he hated, put fire in front of every house, and created as much noise as they could the whole night. This worked and Nian never returned, creating a tradition of celebrating it sometime between Jan 21 to Feb 20, depending on the lunar cycle for that year.

Sonny Phung, a member of VSA, became the choreographer for the dance portion of the event, building dances from scratch. 

“Females will dance to a really traditional dance mostly using our hands, because we will be wearing traditional Áo dài (traditional Vietnamese dress for females) and high heels for the performance. For the boys, it’s a little bit more of a modern dance and has influence from Korean-pop and other Asian music cultures,” said Phung.

Official date for Lunar New Years in 2019 is Feb 5. Vietnamese celebrate it for nine days straight.