Celebrating Chinese New Year 2022 in Canada
Credit to Author: Canadian Immigrant| Date: Tue, 01 Feb 2022 22:02:09 +0000
It’s time to usher in Chinese New Year 2022 which falls on February 1, 2022. Also known as the Spring Festival or Lunar Festival, the traditional celebration lasts between seven to 15 days. Families gather to celebrate, feast and rejoice. You can find celebrations in your city, such as the hybrid Toronto Chinatown Celebration (virtual and live) and Lunarfest Vancouver.
Every year has a zodiac animal and 2022 is the Year of the Tiger.
Chinese-Canadian Gu Zhenzhen shares her experiences celebrating the Festival. Read below.
Chinese New Year celebrations at Pacific Mall. Photo credit: Gu Zhenzhen.
I travel to “China” with my eldest son and daughter, not by the Boeing 777, but by the GO train. I mean Heritage Town or Pacific Mall in Markham, Ontario, which is located on the northeast corner of Steeles Avenue and Kennedy Road. The mall is open 365 days a year and is celebrating its 25th anniversary.
In December, people go Christmas shopping to malls like Yorkdale. Similarly, before the Chinese New Year, also called Spring Festival, folks go to Pacific Mall.
I love the festive atmosphere there. Red lanterns, big and small, are everywhere! I hear people talking in Mandarin or Cantonese, see a lot of Chinese characters and smell delicious Chinese food. All of these are dear to my heart and it feels like a homecoming.
I can’t believe that after more than 30 years of living abroad, China, my birth country, still has such a strong pull for me. When I stroll through Pacific Mall, I feel like traveling back in time. As children, during the Chinese New Year, we wore brand new clothes and walked around our neighbourhood, carrying a little paper lantern with a burning candle inside. We lit firecrackers or fireworks, and ate traditional Chinese food, such as dumplings. Relatives and friends showed up at our house unexpectedly (back then we didn’t have telephones at home), so there were plenty of pleasant surprises.
As Chinese-Canadians, the Chinese New Year is just as important as Christmas to my family. We celebrate it with our four children who were born and raised in Canada. Since we keep the old traditions, like eating dumplings during Spring Festival, and welcome new ones in our adopted country, such as eating turkey during Christmas, we end up having more joys in life.
Whenever I feel homesick here in Canada, I visit Pacific Mall and enjoy the familiar sounds, sights and scents. And then I bring back a piece of my home country, like colourful paper lanterns or pretty china bowls and plates. It is perfect that I live in both worlds, Eastern and Western, past and present.
More about the Year of the Tiger
2022 is the Year of the Tiger in Chinese New Year lore. People born in a Year of the Tiger — 1926, 1938, 1950, 1962, 1974, 1986, 1998, 2010, 2022, 2034 — are said to be courageous and active people who love a good challenge and adventure in life.
Lucky things for Tigers
- Colours: blue, green
- Numbers: 1,3,7
- Flowers: plum blossom
- Lucky directions: north
Source: https://chinesenewyear.net/zodiac/tiger/
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