A MOUNT Gambier family joined millions of people across the globe to usher in the Year of the Rat on Saturday, officially marking the arrival of Lunar New Year celebrations.
Cultural blessings and traditional cuisine formed part of the festivities hosted by Tina Lam and her extended family and friends to mark the important occasion.
In Chinese culture, the rat is a symbol of fertility and abundance with people born during the Year of the Rat believed to be creative, resourceful, intelligent and able to form strong social connections.
Ms Lam said the Lunar New Year was the biggest event of the year for her family, following the cycle of the moon as opposed to a western civilization calendar.
“Our Lunar New Year is similar to Christmas time for most families,” she said.
“It is a time where no matter where you are in the world you come home to your family and spend three days with them.”
Ms Lam said the older family members gift money bags to the grandchildren as a blessing for good health, quick growth and positive behaviour.
“Once we become adults and have a family of our own the parents then pass money bags and blessings to the elders wishing good health and a long life,” Ms Lam said.
True to tradition, Ms Lam’s family feasted on bitter, sour, spicy and sweet dishes on Saturday to represent what comes and what has been.
“The bitter, sour and spicy dishes represent all of the negative things that have happened over the past year,” she said.
“But it also prepares you for the coming year and represents to just get through whatever comes your way.
“The sweet dish is to end the year on a positive note but also to show that everything will be overcome in the end.”
Ms Lam said on the first day of the new year sweeping the floor was forbidden as it represented sweeping wealth out the door.
“We also bless any machinery for it to work well throughout the year with people blessing their boats and other things like that,” she said.
A blessing table is also set up to bring good wealth for the new year.
“We decorate this table in a specific way with everything red and yellow which signifies luck and wealth,” she said.
“There is also coconut, pawpaw, mango and custard apple on the table because their names together in our language means enough to spend over the new year.”
A member of the city’s Vietnamese community, Ms Lam have invited members from other cultures to experience their Lunar New Year celebrations.
“It is just a big family event,” she said.
“That is the best thing about it.”
