How people are celebrating Lunar New Year in Australia and New Zealand
image via @crutsal/instagram
as told to fashion journal
“I went all out this year because I was born in the year of the horse.”
Known as Lunar New Year (or ‘Spring Festival’ chunjie 春節), February 17 marks the beginning of a new year in the traditional Chinese lunisolar calendar, ushering in the Year of the Fire Horse, a rare occurrence that comes around only once every 60 years.
This year, Lunar New Year has gained widespread momentum and attention online, with various videos of horse iconography, rituals and explainers – including many coming from non-Asian creators. “The fascination with Lunar New Year is so interesting to me,” fashion writer Maggie Zhou said recently in a podcast episode of Culture Club. “I feel like some people are… co-opting it as a fresh start for their own life.”
Interested to hear how others navigate the world? Head to our Life section.
While the West’s recent obsession with Chinese wellness practices might explain the viral videos about the Year of the Fire Horse, the Lunar New Year holds special cultural significance for many people of Asian heritage who celebrate it every year, with long-steeped traditions.
Its origins can be traced back to China, however Lunar New Year is widely celebrated across many East and Southeast Asian countries, and in communities and diasporas around the world. It’s ushered in with various traditions, like cooking certain meals, gathering with family and friends and wearing certain colours. Below, seven people share what Lunar New Year means to them and how they’re celebrating it.
Crystal Chen, singer and photographer
Last night we had a feast and filled the dinner table with ten of our friends. Leading up to the New Year, I got a big haul from Chinatown and bought heaps of horse 福字窗花 (red fortune window stickers traditionally made from paper cutting). One pack came with twenty, so I stuck them on most of the flat reflective surfaces throughout the house to bring in good fortune.
马上发财 (get rich immediately) and 马到成功 (success upon arrival) (on horseback) were also pasted on doors, lanterns were hung, and we had red knots, gourds, and horse figurine decorations. I went all out this year because I was born in the year of the horse, so I got red knickers, socks and a red string bracelet that I tied a jade charm to.
My mum cooked a steamed fish, red-braised pork belly 红烧肉, and I steamed dumplings and made a cucumber salad. My friend DD made crispy pork, Ange brought a durian, and Bikun made a delicious Thai salad. We pulled out Moutai for the occasion, too.
We wore colourful clothes and lots of red, played mahjong and called our family in China. It’s bittersweet not celebrating with them because this is a time where families unite, and everyone in my family in China was at my grandparents’ home except for my mum and me, but we’ll go back to Beijing next month and go tomb sweeping in our hometown.
Tara Chandra, digital artist
Lunar New Year has always been a special time for me! Growing up, it was my favourite time of year (maybe because it was my time to make money from Ang Paos, haha). My maternal grandparents used to throw lavish parties with all their friends and a lot of food.
Over the years, the day before and day of LNY have changed to a simpler morning of prayer and providing offerings in the form of food and burning paper money to our ancestors and Buddhist ‘Gods’. We would then eat all the delicious food offerings, usually consisting of noodles, duck, chicken and fruits.
A Chinese-Indonesian tradition my family has always done is a ‘Mandi Bunga’, translating to ‘Flower Bath’, where we collect different flowers, place them in water and wash our faces with it. This year, as my maternal grandma is overseas, we’ll be spending time with my paternal family for an early LNY dinner celebration. As this side grew up in Singapore, they usually start by celebrating with Lo Hei (tossing raw fish salad), followed by a feast my aunty whips up.
Clara Yew, writer
In my family, Chinese New Year is celebrated with a big dinner on the eve of the first day. As Chinese of the Southeast Asian variety, we make yee sang, a raw fish salad. I love it so much that I risk my digits for hours on end to shred radishes, carrots and cucumbers.
It’s my favourite tradition because each ingredient is paired with a well-wish for the new year. Each phrase is only four characters long and is a pun on the ingredient’s name! At the beginning of the night, everyone grabs a pair of chopsticks and tosses the salad to a prosperous year.
Evie Liou, writer
To me, Lunar New Year is about gathering together to remember our roots and reforge bonds for the future. This New Year is especially significant for me as it marks the end of my Ben Ming Nian, where self-reflection is encouraged as you navigate challenges. Ultimately, I learned a lot this past year and am looking forward to taking those lessons with me as I move forward.
I live away from my family (in Taiwan and Australia), so I’m celebrating the new year with other loved ones. We’ll make dumplings from scratch, eat a lot of traditional food and wait to welcome the new year together.
For the past couple of years, I’ve been fortunate enough to work at a company where they let those who celebrate take half the day off for preparations. I’m extremely grateful for these chances, since rushing the preparations (such as cooking and decorating) after work can mean that you barely get time to eat and celebrate before midnight. This way, I get the time to actually reconnect with my roots and enter the new year refreshed.
Maggie Zhou, writer and editor
To me, Lunar New Year is about connecting with family and cultural traditions. It’s a time to gather together and to toast the year to come. My family celebrates Lunar New Year by having a big family dinner on the eve before. We hail from the south of China, where hot pot is the traditional dish of choice. My mum buys and preps the lot, and we typically have sliced meat, fish balls, green veggies, udon noodles, mushrooms and more. Despite it being 34 degrees in Melbourne, we persist!
This year, Mum’s also made Chinese New Year cake (nian gao), a sort of steamed cake made from glutinous rice flour and brown sugar. Hopefully, we’ll play some backyard table tennis, too.
Anna May, digital creator and designer
I’m a fourth-generation Chinese-Malaysian, and after living in Melbourne for nine years, Lunar New Year feels different. In a country that doesn’t pause for it the way Malaysia does, being away from home has made me realise how much of my culture lives in the small things that I cannot completely replicate anymore, like the convenience of festive foods, the noise, even the nosey aunties asking invasive questions. It’s a bittersweet feeling. Whenever I can, I go back to Kedah to celebrate with my grandma for a reunion dinner, and in the years I can’t make it back, I practise my rusty Cantonese that I speak exclusively with her over the phone.
This is my first Lunar New Year since getting married, which feels equal parts exciting and mildly tragic because I officially don’t get red packets anymore. Instead, I’m the one carefully stuffing crisp notes into little red envelopes to pass on blessings to my friends’ kids. I guess this is adulthood!
As a Malaysian, I also can’t celebrate without yee sang! It’s chaotic, but everyone tosses the colourful prosperity salad as high as possible as you shout for auspicious wishes. I recently hosted a potluck with yee sang, trivia and games to win money (because we love the idea of more money too much!).
My Chinese-Australian husband (proudly Northern Chinese) has also introduced his own traditions into the fold. Our ancestors are from different parts of China and our cultural upbringing has really shaped how we celebrate, but now they coexist harmoniously in our kitchen together.
Crystal Lim, stylist and model
Here in Aotearoa, we try to capture a little of the Lunar New Year gaiety my parents experienced in their youth in Malaysia. Our celebrations are on a much smaller scale but the most important thing is gathering as a family on the eve of the New Year, and sharing an extravagant meal of seafood and meat dishes that my Ma has spent all day preparing. We will always Lou Sang (捞生), which is a tradition where we all toss a salad together with chopsticks and shout wishes for good health, prosperity and abundance.
For more on Lunar New Year, head here.
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