Keeping Dinners Small & Virtual Celebration Calls

As we count down the days until Lunar New Year, we’ve asked our fellow Chinese Canadian community on Instagram how they typically celebrate the annual festivities.

Angelica from @Foodyblogs says: “For Chinese New Year, my family and I often celebrate with lots of food! My favorite would have to be the chewy sweet rice cakes which we would pan-fry to make them perfectly crispy on the outside and mochi-like on the inside.

Radish cakes

Radish cakes

In the past, my mom would also make radish cakes with her sisters and my grandma. They would sit together and grate radishes for hours while they reminisced about their past. Since my dad and I are both vegetarian, he would also prepare a vegetarian version of the traditional radish cake for us to enjoy! We would then have a big dinner celebration with hotpot which was always super lively and warm, followed by a few games of mahjong or cards (specifically “Big 2”) to end the night! 

Additionally, we would also have a celebration at my temple among all the volunteers and their families every year, often on the weekend following CNY! There was always a lot of amazing vegetarian Chinese food, some of which I had the chance to help prepare with other volunteers. We would sleepover the night before and wake up at 4 am in the morning to start cooking and arranging all the food and I was always inspired by the high spirits that everyone had despite the early schedule! The lunch celebration was always extremely lively, and there would be performances, some of which I would take part in, by the various volunteer groups within the temple. 

Given the pandemic this year, we will probably stick to a small dinner just between my mom, dad, and me! My dad will still make his radish cakes though which I am excited for! Because my temple has also been closed off to the public, they are hosting a virtual celebration this year and the volunteers had the chance to put together a video of us performing as a way to wish all the nuns at the temple a Happy Lunar New Year!”

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Diana from @Foodologyca says: “We usually keep our Lunar New Year celebrations simple and enjoy the day with our family over a bountiful amount of food at the dinner table. We don't usually have any superstitions or special preparations, but we do make sure we have a large assortment of dishes from fish, to chicken, and veggies.

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Ever since we were kids, we always celebrated with lots of food on the table. I never always understood what each prepared dish means, but we always had our family around the dinner table. 

As this year is a bit different due to the pandemic, we are keeping it small to our immediate family. One good thing that came out of this pandemic is being thankful for our health and the importance of family.

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