Thursday 25-02-2021 - 00:00

The Lunar (Chinese New Year) fell on Friday 12 February 2021, and celebrations will culminate with the Lantern Festival on February 26th, 2021. During this time, you'll see lanterns all around Manchester.

 

 

Chinese New Year marks the transition between zodiac signs: 2021 is the year of the Ox; 2020 the year of the Rat. The Faculty of Arts and Humanities spoke about the Spring Festival with second year Manchester Fashion Institute student, Beier Lyu.

 

Beier, you are a Chinese international student can you tell us a little bit about the Lunar New Year so other students who may not be aware of it can get to know this celebration? How do you usually celebrate the Lunar New Year?

“For my family it’s all about the family reunion dinner on New Year's Eve. I usually go to my grandparents’ place and celebrate it with the whole family, meet all my cousins and also visit grandparents from my mum’s side at well. When I was young, we usually visited everybody in the family including close friends and neighbours, but now it’s more about getting together with close relatives. We just send New Year greetings to everyone we know in a text form. People like to wear red all over during New Year. We decorate our doors and windows with Spring Festival couplets. Streets are full of red lanterns. Elders give the children red envelopes with money inside.”

 

What food is it typical to eat at the Lunar New Year?

“Dumplings are a must, rice cakes as well, for some people. I also like the New Year's sweets that we get from the supermarket - they are for the kids when people come to visit. Overall, we cook many different dishes. It’s similar to Christmas or Thanksgiving; we almost cook more than we can eat, since we have the whole family eating together.”

 

You are a second-year student and last year you were in Manchester for this festival. What did you do last year? And how would you describe the differences between being in China and being in the UK for this celebration?

“Last year, I celebrated with some Chinese friends that I met when I first came to Manchester Met. We made dumplings with pre-made dumpling dough and made our own stuffing. We all cooked together and made a big meal, just as we would do if we were at home. We also took Polaroids and had drinks with some other Chinese students in Manchester. I haven’t had a New Year in China for a few years now. I guess the difference is in spending this special time of the year with different people in different places; one is with family and one is with friends, one is more traditional, and one is about getting together, hanging out and making each other feel at home.”

 

We hope you have a fantastic new year and that you enjoyed reading about Beier Lyu’s experience.

Coming up you can also take part in the Cross-faculty international social. Join us for a poetry workshop evening with Martin Kratz, Manchester Poetry Library Project Manager to discover poetry and meet other international students from all over the world and cross-faculties at Manchester Met Uni. This is a chance to be part of our global family - at 5pm on Thursday 18 March 2021.