Lunar New Year Is Around the Corner: What Is the Celebration and How to Get Involved
The Lunar New Year, also known as the Chinese New Year, is typically celebrated in China and other East Asian countries, as well as by Asian diaspora and allies around the world. The celebration marks the beginning of a new year with monthly cycles established around the moon’s phases, based on the lunar calendar. Because it’s based on the cycles of the moon the exact date on Western calendars varies each year, with it falling on Tuesday 1st February this year.
Typical celebrations usually start around ten days before the beginning of the New Lunar Year with a custom known as “sweeping of the grounds” that involves a thorough clean of the house to remove any bad luck lingering from the year before. Then New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day consist of family celebrations. Dancing and fireworks take place throughout the holiday, building up to the Lantern Festival, which takes place on the last day of celebrations. The Lantern Festival is an evening filled with traditional food and colorful lanterns, lighting up houses.
Journalist, Carolyn Cage explains the meaning of the celebration to her: “Chinese New Year has always been one of my favorite times of the year. It reminds me of staying up late as a child - making spring rolls and dumplings with my mum, my heart pounding to the beat of the drums at the lion dance, and of course, collecting hóng bāo (red envelopes with money) from relatives and family friends.
But what it meant to me growing up, is much different from what it means to me now. Chinese New Year is now a day where I celebrate acceptance - and the blend of my cultural heritage and sexual identity.”
For many in the LGBTQ+ Asian community, the Lunar New Year is a reminder of their different identities and how they intersect. In China, homosexuality is legal but for many spending the festivities with their families it is not safe to come out. However, Dr, Shawna Tang explains that although it can be a tough time for the LGBTQ+ Asian community, we must be careful in making any generalizations:
“I think while we want to acknowledge that occasions such as Chinese New Year can be uncomfortable events for LGBTQ+ [people], we also have to be careful in saying that this is due to some kind of traditional, conservative, cultural problem of the Chinese. On the contrary, I think any occasion or festivity that involves getting together with “the family” will invariably involve unwelcome questions and scrutiny for anyone… Festivities and all life events infused with the notion of a “proper” family can be experienced as unbearable and uncomfortable for everyone who stands outside the fold of these very narrow set of norms. The key concern for me here is not the Chinese conservative family, but “the family” itself and its wide exclusionary effects.
In this regard, my advice to LGBTQI people who feel uncomfortable during the Chinese New Year festivity is this: seek out your cousin who is a single mother, or the relative who is disrespected for the job they hold. There will be solidarities and common experiences, even as your identities are different. You’ll find allies in them. And Chinese New Year will be a whole lot safer and fun in the company of the motley crew.”
The nuances in the conversation of the experiences of the LGBTQ+ Asian community is exactly why myGwork is marking this Lunar New Year with a panel that will platform voices from this community, allowing them to share their stories and lived experiences. So, whether you are new to celebrating the Lunar New Year, or it is a life-long tradition, join us to listen and learn about the challenges facing the Asian diaspora, the response in Asian families to being LGBTQ+, and how the pandemic has impacted Asian LGBTQ+ people.
Join myGwork to mark the Lunar New Year with our upcoming panel, Asian & LGBTQ+: Lived Experiences on Tuesday 1st February 2022 at 4pm GMT. Sign up now.
