Even though I’m Chinese, I think I’ve almost forgotten that the last few days have marked the Lunar New Year. Indeed, I remembered what zodiac animal was associated with 2006 only when a high school friend from Drexel messaged me on Facebook with something along the lines of “Happy Chinese New Year, bitch; please do not take offense to this term, for this is the Year of the Dog.” Nevertheless, the posters for Washington University’s Lunar New Year Festival were ubiquitous, and I ended up attending the Washington University production on Saturday. However, my reactions about the festival are mixed, though not lukewarm; some pieces, such as the dragon dance that seems to blend traditional and modern style, are captivating, and others, such as the singing, proves moving and even vaguely haunting. On the other hand, a few parts of the production seem downright confusing and out of place; hip-hop and juggling come to mind. Although I think it’s important that any celebration of East Asian culture must cover the present situation with Asians in the Western world, the Festival sometimes seems to make little reconciliation between present and past. I do, however, appreciate the skit of a Chinese-American family that runs continuously through the production; in being so continuous, it provides a sense of unity and emphasizes the importance of family throughout the Festival.

But now this is beginning to skid toward a review and not an op-ed, so let me get my bearings. What has struck me most about the Lunar New Year and its festival and celebrations is that it seems a bit flippant. Unlike Christmas, for example, this holiday just doesn’t seem to hold much of a religious or even spiritual import; Christmas is based on an event many take too importantly, not an astronomical or seasonal occurrence. There are people who fast during Yom Kippur or Ramadan for religious reasons, but for the Lunar New year, there’s feasting and noisemaking, which seems not at all serious enough for such a noteworthy holiday.

Chinese New Year, in my experience, seems almost like a Thanksgiving, marked by spring instead of autumn, where the family and household are held in remembrance. But then again, such a holiday seems so earthly, but that is no fault – Chinese writer Lin Yutang never believed that Christianity would be fully realized in his people (and he was a minister’s son, mind you). And of course, we can’t help but see that holidays like Easter and Christmas, for all their religious and spiritual significance, succumb to corporate commercialism. The Easter Bunny, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, and a Coke-drinking Santa, after all, have nothing to with crucifixions, resurrections or the Nativity. But then again, it’s ridiculous to say that a festival like the Lunar New Year is somehow free from materialism; the red envelopes I receive every year don’t mean much besides free money (to which I have absolutely no objection).

Are Lunar New Years nowadays, then, not all that different from Thanksgivings or even secular Christmases, only significant in their emphasis upon family and unity? I’m inclined to think so, but that’s no fault of a holiday. If there is indeed any shortcoming in a holiday, it’s the absence of culture, which is maybe what grinds my gears (to quote Peter Griffin) so much about Coke-drinking Santas. So when the Year of the Pig comes around, I suppose I’ll call my parents, go somewhere Chinese for dinner, be glad that I’ll still young enough to get red envelopes, and, yes, go to Washington University’s Lunar New Year Festival. It may not be completely Chinese, but that multiculturalism is something I find refreshingly new in a celebration of what’s predominantly been a Chinese holiday.

David is a freshman in Arts & Sciences.

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