📝 Three years of Covid restrictions underscores the importance of family at Chinese New Year
After three years of Covid restrictions, Chinese New Year celebrations are finally back | CREDIT: Shen Yang
While 2022 was the year of the tiger – tough and turbulent – 2023 marks the year of the rabbit, a harbinger of luck and good fortune
By Shen Yang
When I was a little girl, one of my fondest memories was red date cakes – a steamed dessert traditionally eaten during Chinese New Year in southwestern Shandong. They consist of strips of dough wrapped around dried jujube fruits and are arranged in one or more circular layers like a tower, symbolising people’s hope for a life that gets better and better in the coming year.
The shapes and decorations of the treats vary from family to family: my grandma used to design her cakes as cute little animals from the Chinese zodiac. After more than thirty years, I still remember vividly how proud I was to show off the little chubby rabbit-shaped jujube cakes grandma made for me in front of all the other kids in our village.
After three years of Covid restrictions that crippled Chinese New Year celebrations, the red date cakes are finally back. In the run-up to Spring Festival, my sisters bombarded me with pictures of my favorite childhood snack, in an attempt to entice me to leave Italy and head back home. “If you come back for the new year, we will make you a gigantic jujube cake that you can show to the whole world,” they laughed.
With the government’s ‘zero Covid’ policy now consigned to the past, there has been nothing stopping people from returning home for the festivities – regardless of scientific concern that Covid might spread like wildfire among China’s rural communities, many of which are under-resourced and ill-equipped to deal with outbreakers.
My own hesitance in making the “Chun Yun” (spring migration) trip, along with 2 billion others, was met with dismissal from my mum. “The first peak of Covid infection has passed, everyone here got it and recovered,” she said. “Even if you don’t come back, others will, what’s the big deal?” Such views are now common across the nation.
In China, seeing in the new year is an important occasion, one steeped in history and tradition | CREDIT: Shen Yang
While 2022 was the year of the tiger – tough and turbulent, much like the past 12 months – 2023 marks the year of the rabbit, a harbinger of luck and good fortune. Understandably, after all we’ve been through, the people of China will be wishing for peace and serenity in the months ahead.
In China, as in many other countries, seeing in the new year is an important occasion, one steeped in history and tradition. If jujube cakes symbolise people’s hopes for prosperity and a better life in the coming year, fireworks have long been used to scare away evil spirits, ring out the old year, and ring in the new.
However, China has strictly banned fireworks since 2017, and people reluctantly abandoned this long-standing tradition. But like a lit fuse, the desire to set off fireworks and firecrackers has been burning over the past few years, and even more so after three years of travel restrictions and missed celebrations.
So this year, open rebellion against the ban finally exploded both offline and online, to the point that authorities in several cities lifted the fireworks bans, not only to drive away evil spirits but also to release people’s pressure and ease the depression accumulated during the pandemic.
A much less beloved “tradition” of Chinese New Year is family gossip, typically centered around marriage and the children of younger family members. This is especially annoying for girls since they are expected to get married before their thirties and earn the infamous nickname of “leftover women” if they cross that threshold.
‘I won’t force my daughter to marry’
Yet, it seems that even this tradition is now changing for the better – an outcome of the pandemic.
“I won’t force my daughter to get married or have a baby anymore, as long as she is safe and healthy, and living her life to the fullest, I’m happy.” When my friend heard from a relative what her mum said, she couldn’t wait to fly back home and hug her.
For years, she had been arguing with her mum, trying to convince her there was nothing to be ashamed of if she chose to be alone. Living in a small town, within a tightly knit community where everyone else’s daughter had already married, her mum always felt inferior to her peers, even though her daughter studied abroad, works for a large company, and is financially independent.
But after witnessing so many tragedies since the beginning of the pandemic, and the sudden death of many people around her, she finally realised there was nothing more important than the health and happiness of her only daughter.
Similarly, the illness or passing of many elderly people due to Covid complications brought families closer, making younger people more aware of life’s fragility and prompting many of them to cherish their family members, especially aging ones.
It seems that after three years of lockdowns, quarantine camps, travel restrictions and hassles, the fear of contracting an unpredictable illness and losing loved ones before their time has left many of us with a stronger appreciation of life and family relationships – a key theme that runs throughout Chinese New Year celebrations.
As we usher in the year of the rabbit and finally reunite with our loved ones, I hope we will finally manage to blow away the bad memories of Covid-19 and begin 2023 with new, beautiful memories.