How Do You Celebrate Your Culture Through Food? - The New York Times

Food is an important part of Lunar New Year celebrations. Do you celebrate? If not, tell us about another holiday that is special to your family.

Feb. 1 marks one of the most important holidays in Vietnam, South Korea, China and other Asian countries: Lunar New Year. Do you celebrate this holiday? Are you looking forward to the Year of the Tiger?

The festivities begin with a feast the night before, and can last for two weeks. The foods — longevity noodles, dumplings, lumpia, steamed fish, tang yuan — often symbolize promises for a better year ahead.

Do you have any special cultural or holiday traditions that involve food?

In the article “In Singapore, Lunar New Year Is a Multicultural Feast,” Clarissa Wei writes about how the ethnic diversity of Singapore shines through the food prepared for the celebration:

For about two decades, Shila Das has brought her chicken curry and nasi biryani to her best friend, Wendy Chua, for their Lunar New Year celebrations together in their native Singapore. They start the day with those dishes, then have hot pot.

The women, both 51, began spending the holiday together as teenagers, watching lion dance troupes perform in the wide atrium of Ms. Chua’s grandfather’s house. Nearly three decades ago, the ethnically Chinese Chua family tasked Ms. Das, who is Indian and Vietnamese, with presiding over its household’s New Year lo hei ceremony, a Singaporean tradition centered on yu sheng, one of the country’s most popular New Year dishes. Ms. Das led the family in tossing the ingredients, flinging raw fish, crackers, slivered carrots and pickled ginger into the air while shouting auspicious phrases in Chinese. (Lo hei means “tossing up good fortune” in Cantonese.)

“Just imagine. In this Chinese house, there’s this Indian girl that stands on the stool and leads the lo hei every year,” Ms. Das said.

Lunar New Year, which falls on Feb. 1 this year, is celebrated in Singapore primarily by members of the Chinese diaspora, who make up three-quarters of the population. They include those who are Hokkien, Cantonese and Teochew from southeastern China; Hainanese from the island province of Hainan; Hakka, a migrant group spread out all over China; and Peranakan, who have been in the region for over 400 years and also have mixed Malay and European ancestry. Each ethnic group has its own set of traditions, but years of living among one another, and among other peoples like Malays and Indians, have created the island’s colorful and distinctive culinary fabric.

And in the article “It’s Lunar New Year. Get Ready for Some Fruit.” Alyssa Lukpat reports on the beloved holiday tradition of eating and giving fruit:

In the days leading up to the Lunar New Year, Daphne Wu would wait for a pomelo to ripen.

Her family would buy at least one every year and set it on the counter. It got sweeter and sweeter as the New Year approached.

Pomelos, which are similar to grapefruits, are said to bring prosperity to whoever eats them, but they are notoriously difficult — and time-consuming — to crack open.

The practice of peeling the fruit together brought Ms. Wu’s family closer, and the taste of the pomelo was just a bonus. “It’s amazingly sweet,” said Ms. Wu, 33, a web designer and a co-founder of the Cut Fruit Collective, an organization in the San Francisco Bay Area that supports Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders.

Eating, and giving, fruit are among the customs that many Asian families, like Ms. Wu’s, practice for the Lunar New Year. This year, the holiday will fall on Tuesday, as the moon enters a new phase and ushers in the Year of the Tiger. Celebrations often last two weeks.

Lunar New Year traditions vary among Asian cultures, but their goal remains the same: to bring luck and prosperity. There are other traditions, too, such as exchanging red envelopes containing money and eating long noodles for a long life.

Students, read one or both of the articles, and then tell us:

• If you celebrate Lunar New Year, do you participate in any of the food-related traditions you read about, such as sharing a big meal with family and friends or eating and giving fruit? If not, what did you learn about this holiday? Do the traditions remind you of any that you practice in your own culture?

• If you don’t celebrate Lunar New Year, choose another special food-focused holiday your family or community celebrates. What kinds of foods do you eat? Who does the cooking? What does the preparation look like? Are there any special rituals, like the lo hei?

• Certain Lunar New Year foods hold special meaning: Long noodles symbolize a long life; whole poultry signals abundance; dumplings represent family unity and togetherness for the year ahead; and apples are said to bring peace. Think about the holiday you’ve chosen to write about. Do any of the foods you eat have special meaning or symbolism?

• Why do you think food is such an important part of so many cultural traditions? How essential is eating, preparing and sharing food in your culture? What does it mean to you?

• Are there recipes that have been passed down through your family that honor or celebrate your culture? Describe one that is special to you and tell us why.

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Want more writing prompts? You can find all of our questions in our Student Opinion column. Teachers, check out this guide to learn how you can incorporate them into your classroom.

Students 13 and older in the United States and Britain, and 16 and older elsewhere, are invited to comment. All comments are moderated by the Learning Network staff, but please keep in mind that once your comment is accepted, it will be made public.

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