Renee Cho Yeon Kim

Happy New Year, Happy Chinese New Year and Happy Seolnal! Wait, what is Seolnal? If you could answer this question confidently, either you “are” Korean or have a very good Korean friend. Seolnal is Korean’s Lunar New Year, which is usually around late January or February. Koreans celebrate New Year’s coming by gathering with their families, eating a traditional soup called Ddukgook, and sharing words of wisdom with each other. Sul is one of the biggest national holidays in Korea, but it is rarely known to anyone outside of the Korean immigrant community in the United States. Some Korean immigrants, however, still think that Seolnal should earn more recognition in American society.

Just around this year’s Seol season, I read an opinion article written by an educational expert from the local Korean newspaper. I do not remember the exact details, but the author suggested Korean parents not to send their children to school on Seolnal in order to enhance its recognition in the local community. She used an example of how some public schools are now closing on Jewish holidays such as Rosh Hashanah and Yum Kippur in New York City and Los Angeles. She further explicated that some of public schools in New York City are already excusing Korean students for their absence on Seolnal.

If we looked into the social aspects, this phenomenon is rather simple. Raising recognition of one ethnic group’s culture is excessively crucial in a “melting pot” society like the United States. We often view certain ethnic groups’ political influence to be equivalent to their cultural recognition within society. Then, to what extent should we allow minority groups to exercise and celebrate their holidays? Is it fair closing schools for Jewish holidays but not for Chinese holidays? Then what about Puerto Rican’s Natalicio de José de Diego or Pakistani’s Eid-e-Milad-un-Nabi? What kind of problems would emerge if we decided to only recognize the official holidays of America? For my IDC project, I would like to address and discuss about different ethnic immigrant groups’ efforts to earn cultural recognition and expand their political influence in America by promoting their own national holidays.

For my part of the class project, I would like to explore how different cultures celebrate the New Year. I would like to focus on the way the New Year is celebrated by Chinese, Japanese, and Jewish people, as well as the typical celebration style of Americans.

I would like to discover the origins of New Year celebrations for these groups and point out any similarities between the groups, as well as the interesting differences. In particular, I want to understand the essence of this holiday; what is the true purpose for celebrating the New Year?

I will focus on traditional foods, activities, and also the practice of New Year’s Resolutions.

Duanwu Jie in China is called the Dragon Boat Festival in the United States.

The name Dragon Boat Festival is somewhat misleading because it doesn’t reveal the true essence and history of this ancient holiday.

Every fifth day of the fifth lunar month, around June, there will be a dragon boat-racing contest at Flushing Meadows Park. But there is more to this holiday than just a race. Most Chinese and foreigners don’t know about the legend behind this holiday, though it has become an international event.

For this project, I would like to explore the history and compare the differences and similarities between how this holiday is celebrated in China and in New York. There are also many aspects to the holiday that is not known to most people. I hope to reveal a different side to this celebration.

I have always wondered why we get Jewish and Christian holidays off from school/work, but attend school during the Lunar New Year, a holiday widely celebrated by most Chinese and Korean families.

There is certainly a great  number of Asian families residing within the five boroughs. Can this be considered as a form of discrimination? What had happened for the other cultures to get their holiday accepted as an official holiday? I would like to explore such aspects for my portion of our class project.

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The United States can often be characterized by its celebration of holidays of all origins–and the adaptations of those holidays themselves. In many cases, holidays that held little importance in their source nation find a much more accentuated place in American society. One prime example of America’s (and, possibly even more notably, New York City’s) ability to amplify the power of an adopted holiday’s spirit is St. Patrick’s Day.

St. Patrick’s Day traditionally commemorates the popular patron saint of Ireland, and also the introduction of (Catholic) Christianity to the nation. However, in New York City and many other places in America, this holiday has evolved into a raucous celebration of the homeland–with far fewer reverent, religious connotations.

Where does this desire to mold the intentions of an international holiday to showcase individual characteristics and pride come from? This question raises thoughts of religion, age, culture, and other differences that could have possibly wedged themselves into the gap that seems so distinct today. Through extensive research and interviews of family members who really have experienced both ends of the spectrum of St. Patrick’s Day, from the quiet observances of Ireland to the vibrant festivals of New York City, I intend to find out the answers to this question–and, hopefully, find examples of why so many holidays in New York City can be deeply rooted in the culture they’ve been introduced to, as well as holding on to their origins.

For my proposal, I was concentrating on the Chinese culture and how living in New York influences Chinese holidays and customs. The event that I focused on was the celebration of Chinese weddings in America. I interviewed a good friend of mine, who told me about the traditional weddings that they had in China. In China, the color white is considered bad luck and is usually worn at funerals. The traditional Chinese wedding in China consisted of a red dress with elaborate designs. The color represents joy and happiness and is considered good luck for the couple.  In America, my friend’s family and a lot of their relatives usually have three outfit changes for the woman- an outfit for the tea ceremony, a white wedding dress (for a traditional Western ceremony) and the traditional cocktail dress, called a QiPao, for the reception. This did not happen in China. Another difference is that in America, the new generations and even Chinese Americans who immigrated here use DJs and MCs at their weddings, whereas in China, there would be people hired to sound the gongs and other traditional Chinese instruments. My friend also mentioned that the Chinese weddings are being more Americanized with food from different cultures, such as steak, while still serving lobster, shark-finned soup, chicken, fish, lo-mein, fried rice, and red bean soup. Before the wedding in China, the bride will go to her in-laws house first, be gifted a lot of jewelry, then go to her parents’ house and be given jewelry by them as well. Only after these gifts are exchanged does the wedding reception begin. In traditional Chinese weddings, there are no wedding vows. There is simply a reception. When people attending the wedding bang their chopsticks on their plates, it means that the newly wedded couple has to kiss.

There are many Chinese wedding traditions that carry on from China into the Western world. Many Chinese American weddings incorporate table toasts, in which the bride and groom go around to every table and make individual toasts. However, as more generations are being American- born Chinese, those traditions start to slowly fade away. This is also seen in many interracial Chinese weddings, which have been increasing at a very quick rate in America.