Recipes for the Chinese new year Feb. 8

Fish is an auspicious Chinese New Year symbol, associated with wishing for abundance in the coming year. This rush of traveling during the busiest period of Spring Festival is known in Chinese as the “chunyun” period or “Spring Festival travel rush”. The variety show will feature groups from Markham, including the Chinese Collective Arts Association performing “Journey to the West” in honour of the Year of the Monkey and Yips Canada children’s choir. “So we asked the designers to think big, and they did”. Dumplings are served too and very often the family join in preparing them.

Anne Lawlor from Raheny and Linjia Zheng (5) at the launch of Dublin’s Chinese New Year Festival. This year, the Chinese New Year begins on February 8 and ends January 17, 2017. White, blue and gold are said to be lucky colours during the year of the monkey. Nearly everyone goes shopping for new clothing to totally start the year out fresh.

Celebrations centre on the most important meal of the year, the reunion dinner with family on New Year’s Eve. Locals know it simply as New Year.

Chinese New Year is just around the corner.

Spring festival can be a lucrative time for children, who can expect to receive lucky red envelopes with money inside. “A charm to bring satisfaction and happiness year by year!” Despite the slowing Chinese economy, more Chinese tourists are expected to visit the USA this year than in previous years. Users who tweet #HappyCNY, #KungHeiFatChoy and #GongXiFaCai will see red packet emojis added to their messages.

From February 6 to 21, Sydney will come alive at 80 events to ring in the new Year of the Monkey.

Writer Sylvia Vetta had her debut novel, Brushstrokes in Time released this month so she tells us about the things we never knew about Chinese New year.

The upcoming year of the monkey also occurred in 1920, 1932, 1944, 1956, 1968, 1980, 1992, 2004 and includes birth dates of celebrities such as Leonardo da Vinci, Charles Dickens, Celine Dion, Tom Hanks, Will Smith, Halle Berry, Christina Aguilera, Diana Ross, Elizabeth Taylor, Mick Jagger and Julius Caesar to name but a few. The series started in 2009 with the Year of the Ox, after the original series that started in 1997 was completed.

Customs and traditions vary widely depending on what part of China you or your family are from including traditional types of dance performed by the artists.

Along with new outfits, there are many other “Nian Huo”, new year goods, to shop for during the holiday, including special decorations, flowers, food, and beverages. “Supermarkets and malls are taking the place of temple fairs, ‘Miao Hui, ‘ as a central locus of celebration”. “It’s a mark of respect, thanking them for all the hard work they have invested in bringing them up”, he says. Fireworks are lit up after midnight as a way of driving away evil spirits.

The Manila Hotel is offering a special Chinese Lunar New Year room package from February 7 to February 8.