By Vanessa Wu

Staff Writer

   Out of all the holidays, Chinese New Year was celebrated the most in my family. It’s the only time when all my cousins come back from college and family who does not live in California come to celebrate the holiday with us.

   When I was younger, I would normally start off the week helping my parents clean the house because they told me that if I cleaned on the day of, I would be sweeping away all our good luck. During the weekends, I went to the temple and enjoyed the festivities that were going on. There would be dragons dancing, fireworks crackling, loud music playing, and people being “blessed” by monks.

  After the morning rituals, my whole family would then meet at my grandparent’s house to celebrate. Each family brought several traditional Chinese dishes which amassed into a dinner with a large variety of foods. There were noodles, dumplings, fish, roasted pork and duck, chicken, and spring rolls. We would also play a few gambling games after we ate.

  “Gong hei fat choi,” “Happy New Year,” and “I wish you good health” was repeated over and over again by my cousins waiting to get their clean fresh bills in a bright red envelope, known as “lai see” or “hong bao.” For the rest of the night, the parents gathered around and talked while the kids hung out.

  Throughout the years, I realized that Chinese New Year was one of my favorite holidays because I got to celebrate and spend time with my entire family. We would sit around a big table and talk about how everyone’s year has been. However, these traditions started dying a few years ago when my grandparents passed away and when everyone had grown up.

  For the past few years, my mom had begun to go back to Vietnam to celebrate with her family. My cousins and some of my family also stopped celebrating with us because of their busy schedules. My family even started going to restaurants instead of having a big family dinner like we used to.

  Throughout the last few Chinese New Year celebrations, my family went from meeting up to texting each other. This year, I celebrated with only my parents and my sister. Eventually, I came to a realization that next year, there will be no Chinese New Year celebration as I am going off to college.

  To keep the tradition going, I will try my best to come back home every Chinese New Year and celebrate with my family.