Our students of Spanish celebrate the Chinese New Year together in Madrid, and also join the celebration made by the city of Madrid with the Chinese Community that lives in our city. The Chinese New Year, which in 2017 corresponds to the Year of the Rooster of Fire, has 4,000 years of history and an important broadcasting around the world. Coinciding with the beginning of the cultivation cycle, it farewells the winter and welcomes a new season, hence the so-called “Spring Festival”.
I remember once I went to the Chinese supermarket and passed the Mimi shrimp (a type of Chinese snacks), at the same moment, I heard a girl exclaim”such a sky-high price of Mimi.” It is true that the price of food in Madrid is more expensive than China, but I still felt comic about her expression.
The second year alone in a foreign county, seriously, the thing that I miss most is the Chinese food. I used to eat hot pot in the university with my friends, but I did not like it so much just remembering how we “fight” for the meat. This eve of new year, I went to eat hot pot with some Chinese and American students and this time, those American girls preferred the vegetable which made me so happy, because no one was going to “fight” with me.
Actually, they did very well not only cooking the food but also using the chopsticks. Although it was their first time trying hot pot and celebrate the Chinese new year, but when refer to the hot pot, it seemed like all the cultural differences just evaporated in the vapor of hot pot. Besides, Eliza, Sara and Sophie also learned how to speak “happy new year” in Chinese. They spoke quite funny but lovely, and we Chinese girls corrected their pronunciation and could not stop laughing.
Besides the hot pot, there are more customs in China. For example, when the Chinese new year is coming, we people always back to our hometown to unite with our family. we usually cook a lot of plates and also eat dumplings together. Generally, we usually set off a lot of fireworks in the morning or at night. I still remember when I was little, on the first day of spring festival, my grandpa got up at 5 in the morning to set off the firecrackers. And this day, we pay New Year’s call to all the relatives and the adults present the red packet with money to the children and the elderly people. Because the spring festival lasts 15 days till the Lantern festival, my mother always put the red packet for me under my pillow.
This act was for counteracting evil force, but now it is just a custom.
And there is another very traditional culture of spring festival——people go to the temple burning incense and praying. Although in China, we do not have an official religion, and many people are not Buddhist, but we usually go to the temple in this grand festival because Buddhism for us is not only a religion, but also a part of our custom.
In addition, this year is very special for me and for the people who are going to celebrate the birthday of 12,24,36,48……years old because 2017 is our year! And pay attention, when our year is coming, according to the Chinese culture, we people usually take something red like red bra, red knickers or red bracelets for more good luck in the new year. So, if 2017 is your year, do not forget to buy something red taking with you!
Back to this new year in Madrid, and back to TANDEM, for me, this school has so much atmosphere. It seems like the soup of hot pot and we students are the ingredients from different places. After contacting and spending time together, we are inspired in the class and after school, we share the opinions and culture of each other and we get along very well.
TANDEM pays much attention to Chinese culture, on the 9th of February, TANDEM is going to join the Chinese New Year Celebration which is organized by China Club of IE business school. At that time,TANDEM will celebrate this grand festival with all people from all over the world. Besides, TANDEM will also offer the special class with big discount as a new year gift in our stand. We sincerely invite you to join this big celebration and we hope you could enjoy our gift.
Finally, we wish all people happy spring festival and good luck in 2017!
Yina Lou
Article in Chinese
