Today, my family had our annual Lunar New Year Celebration. Although the actual day is tomorrow, the 23rd, it is Vietnamese tradition to celebrate New Years for a week. Even though the Roman calendar states that new years was 22 days ago, there is this refreshing feeling that always comes with Lunar New Year. It is partially because of pride for my heritage and acknowledging the fact that this New Year is bigger for my family then the Roman one, but there is a sense of hope.
When my brothers and I were younger we would recite a little poem that my dad created to the elders. In rough translation it states:
Greetings elders,
The year has past
and now comes a new one.
We hope that you have a year
filled with happiness, good health, peace, and prosperity.
Happy new year, happy new year.
Lucky money, lucky money.
The elders always loved and appreciated it. Although I am older now and am not expected to say this poem. I realized today as I was leaving the celebration to travel back to school that this tradition has been so ingrained in me that I could not leave until I went around to the elders and recite some sort of New Years prayer because with the new year we cannot avoid unfortunate events — but we can hope for the best.
