Lunar New Year

Now that our kids are a little older, I realize that I need to be more intentional about teaching them about my Vietnamese culture. In years past, I've thrown Vietnamese New Year's parties with Asian cuisine for our friends (no kids), but now that we have kids, I feel like we need to include them! Feb. 3 was Lunar New Year, and I definitely didn't want to pass up on this teachable moment. We invited some of our friends to join us on Saturday in ringing in the new lunar year. Most people refer to this as Chinese New Year, but there are many other cultures that celebrate it. That's why I refer to it as Lunar New Year. We were originally just going to go for Vietnamese food as a way of celebrating, but some of our friends found out that there was going to be a lion dance at Shanghai, a local Chinese restaurant. Many Chinese customs have been incorporated into Vietnamese culture, so even if we were part of a Vietnamese circle here (we're not), it's likely we still would've gone to see lion dances. The dancers weaved throughout the restaurant, and they came right to our table. Grace loved it, while Jeremy held onto Jason quite tightly. Jackson was brave enough to "feed" the lion as it came to our table.

It was a neat experience with our kids. We enjoyed the Chinese meal (it was hard to talk though since we were spread over 2 tables), and then headed to our house afterwards to hang out. In Vietnamese traditions, every lunar new year, children are given li xi envelopes (red envelopes with money inside). The children wish their parents and elders wishes for the New Year, and then are given the li xi. We decided to keep that tradition, and presented all of the kids with li xi. It's the Year of the Rabbit, which means that it's supposed to be a peaceful, easygoing year. From what I've read, the Year of the Rabbit signals a year devoted to family, and so I look forward to an amazing year for our family! Chuc Mung Nam Moi- Happy New Year!