Issue date: 1/26/09 Section: News

Media Credit: Kelli Jasso [Click to enlarge]

Media Credit: Chris Griffin [Click to enlarge]

Chinese fortunetellers say that 2009, a year of the ox, could be a tough one. But it will also be a year in which the U.S. is led by a man born in an ox year, President Barack Obama. People born in ox years are typically calm, but hard-workers with a steely resolve.

No matter what fortune the year may hold, though, Chinese students at Texas A&M celebrate the beginning the Chinese New Year today as a new beginning and a time to celebrate with family and friends. Families usually gather from around the world, celebrate with a feast, costumes and games.

Happy New Year! The year of the Rat is officially over. Today marks the first day on the Chinese calendar and the start of a new year - the year of the Ox.

The Chinese calendar is vastly different from the calendar used in countries like the U.S., the Gregorian calendar, in a number of ways. It is measured cyclically, in terms of a 12-year rotation - each named after a Zodiac animal.

The Chinese calendar is also called the Lunar calendar because the moon is used to determine when a new year begins, rather than a linear method based upon a given number of days. The timing of the tradition is based on the phase of the first new moon in the first lunar month, so the day and month that New Year's Day falls on almost always varies from one year to the next.

"The calendar falls on different months, sometimes the Chinese New Year falls on January and sometimes on February," said Kun Gou, a graduate student in the math department.

For example, last year's New Year began on Feb. 7. This year it begins on Jan. 26, and next year, the year of the Tiger, it will start on Feb. 14.

The Lunar calendar also has implications on agriculture to some of the Chinese people.

"The Chinese traditionally use a different calendar because it has to do with agriculture," David Dai, a junior petroleum engineering major said. "We have days where we can't go out and plant - it's really agriculturally centered."

The Chinese New Year celebration is a time of many honored festivities and celebrations, and spending time with family is the main focal point of the events.

"In China, the family will have reunion," Gou said. "It's a time for people to stay together and share their stories from the past year."

With such a high emphasis on spending time with family, it is a thoughtful time for Chinese national students who have been displaced from their families to study abroad at Texas A&M.

"In most cases, in a Chinese family, we will have a good meal; the whole family will travel around the world to get the family together…one important thing is to stay with the whole family," Zhongyue Zhang, a chemistry graduate student, said. "Now that I'm in the U.S., I can't see my family, but I'll call my parents and my grandparents; just like people in the U.S. would do for Christmas."

"It's a time to share with our families," Gou said. "I will miss my parents, my sisters and my relatives during this period."

Gou is a member of the Chinese Newcomer Association, a Christian organization that helps ease the transition for new Chinese students. In place of spending this traditional time with family, they will spend it in the proximity of close friends.

"We will have a meeting at our church on Saturday, Grace Valley Chinese Church, to celebrate our new year," Gou said. "Our brothers and sisters will make very good cuisines at the church for the celebrations to share with Chinese friends."

There are many other traditions that help make this holiday fun and unique.

"[In China] we usually eat dumplings and we watch a show on TV that is broadcast nationally and is specially made for the Chinese New Year," Dai said. "It has singing traditional songs, small skits and large shows about martial arts or historical events."

Much like any other cultural celebration, every family puts its own fine touches on the celebration.

"We eat eggrolls and we play this dice game, bau cua cop," Linh Lam, a sophomore chemical engineering major, said. "We hang out and talk and eat and play blackjack and poker."

The Chinese New Year is enshrined by tradition, and its origins come from a mythological tale passed down as folklore through the ages.

"The Chinese New Year comes from, in ancient times, monsters lived in the mountains," Zhang said. "In the winter, the monsters came down from the mountains and ate the sheep, pigs and people. The monsters were afraid of colors, so the people would decorate the houses red and light firecrackers to keep the monsters away. There were actually no monsters, but they decided to keep the tradition."

The tradition of the New Year's celebration is still intact.

"My favorite tradition is decorating the front doors of our home," Dai said. "We put up big red banners of encouraging words and wishes. The red symbolizes happiness, good fortune and wealth. The biggest part is the fireworks, which we buy and fire ourselves."

Family, food and fireworks make up a majority of the festivities, but sometimes the celebration can become much more extravagant than that.

"Also, we will have some special events in this festival," Gou said. "We will have some dancing, and we will have some special dragons. We will have a performance about a lion and a dragon; the lion is the most powerful animal. The people, we wear clothes like the lion and dragon and dance. We will jump like the lion and the dragon. Then we light fireworks for this grand festival."

For those who choose to do so, the Chinese New Year celebration can be staggered into events taking up to 15 days; much like some would be familiar with the 12 days of Christmas.

There is something to be learned by everyone during this time; the celebration of the year of the Ox, and the festival of events cumulating into the beginning of a new lunar year is not to be enjoyed strictly by Chinese students.

"I hope other American people will learn about the Chinese people during this festival with us, and I think that it would be wonderful for them to celebrate it with us," Gou said.

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