chinese new year

Peter Chan is planning his Chinese New Year celebrations a little early this year, but that doesn't mean his party will be any less festive.

Customers who visit the Great Wall restaurant will be treated to a gift to start the new year: a brightly colored origami bird, 1,000 of which will hang from strings throughout the restaurant.

The Chinese Year of the Horse begins Tuesday. Each year is marked by one of 12 animals from the Chinese zodiac. The Chinese New Year is determined by the second new moon after the winter solstice.

Days before the New Year begins, people begin making preparations for parties. In the month prior to the holiday, the Chinese begin buying presents, decorations and clothing. Food plays an important part in the festivity.

With a menu of barbecue pork, steamed chicken, lobster and fish, rice cakes and vegetable candy, Chan will serve up an abundance of food for his party guests. There's likely to be rice wine and brandy as well.

In his native China, people will celebrate the Chinese New Year for as long as two weeks. But in America, most people don't know about the holiday so there are few parties, particularly in Cape Girardeau, Chan said. Yet the Chinese are happy to explain their New Year customs to anyone who asks.

So the Southeast Missourian did.

A few of the explanations came in broken conversations as relatives translated questions or someone being interviewed asked another how to say a word in EnglishMost native Chinese who live in Cape Girardeau won't be celebrating into the early hours of the New Year because they've adopted American holidays. In China, Malaysia and Taiwan, workplaces will close at mid-afternoon Monday so that everyone can prepare for the New Year.

"There is lots of cooking," said Ling Cai, whose family owns China Palace.

"You plan the party for the first night of the New Year. You buy special food," said Peter Cai, 20, her nephew.

Peter Cai came to Cape Girardeau two years ago from Shaoxing, China. He misses some of the big celebrations, as does his cousin Johnny Cai, 17. "We shoot off fireworks until midnight."

The Cai family will try to have a meal together for the holiday since 12 relatives are living in Cape Girardeau.

Chan, who has organized New Year parties for his restaurant staff for several years, always explains the customs and symbols used in the festivities to his American employees.

"You have to clean up the house and the restaurant for the New Year," Chan said. The custom of starting the New Year clean and refreshed even extends to clothing and shoes.

Markets selling everything from new clothes, food, decorations and flowers will be open until the wee hours of the morning Monday.

"You buy new flowers so that next year everything starts good," Chan said.

And one of the best ways to start the year is with wealth. Parents often hid red packages or envelopes of money, called "angpow," under the pillows of sleeping children.

Children, even at very young ages, almost always know to look under their pillows, said Cheahli Lee, who is originally from Malaysia. Lee works at the Great Wall restaurant.

Red is the predominant color used to decorate for the New Year; some say it means happiness. As one story is told, the red color was used because it scared off the beast Nian that came with its big mouth to swallow everyone. An old man, who turned out to be a god, convinced the beast to eat other beasts of prey instead.

Special foods are eaten during the New Year's Eve meal -- and the tables are set for a feast. Boiled dumplings are a popular course because they represent a good wish for a family.

"You cook lots of things for the New Year: every kind of seafood, fish, duck and chicken," said Kenny Lu, a part owner of Great Wall. "On the first day of the new year we eat long noodles for a long life and a boiled egg."

The egg is supposed to represent health and longevity.

Most Chinese restaurants here don't serve any of the special foods on the holiday, said Cheahli Lee. "It's too traditional for their tastes," she said. "And sometimes even I don't eat it."

ljohnston@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 126