Happy Chinese New Year 2024

Happy Chinese New Year everyone!

Hope you get to celebrate with family and spend time to be with loved ones!

If you don’t celebrate Chinese New Year, then this is just another random weekend before Valentine’s Day.

But what is Chinese New Year?

Chinese New Year is the biggest celebration in Chinese culture. It’s a big deal. Bigger than Christmas, bigger than Jan 1st new years. It’s big.

It’s at least 3 days of public holiday time +/- any extra time that work gives you.

Chinese New Year is a festival that celebrates the beginning of the lunar new year on the traditional lunisolar Chinese calendar.

It’s a time for family and tradition, ushering the new year in, driving out bad spirits and ill fortune while welcoming good fortune and prosperity.

There’s firecrackers, performances, loud music and a big spectacle.

If this were a random weekend with no associated cultural significance to me, I’d see it as a waste of my time or something I’m not interested in.

But, there are things in my life that are not necessarily productive to anyone else, but are productive and meaningful to me.

And I think it’s important to talk about it.

I think it’s important to recognize and acknowledge the things that may not necessarily be objectively productive to other people because productivity is an individual and personal thing.

Again, productivity is a very subjective thing based on your individual priorities.

From the perspective of someone who doesn’t celebrate Chinese New Year, the customs, traditions, and familial duties may seem like a waste of time, distract from your real priorities, and reflect a huge time commitment to something that is silly.

And that may entirely be correct for them if they were in your shoes - after all, they don’t celebrate it.

But for you, this may be a time-honoured tradition that gives you meaning, lets you celebrate your culture, and connect with your family and community on a larger scale.

For me, around this time of year, spending time at a crowded, noisy, bustling dim sum restaurant with friends and family is enjoyable.

The atmosphere takes on a positive twist where the adjectives are festive, exciting, and nostalgic rather than crowded, noisy, and squished.

For me, around this time of year, I miss my parents and family more, because I don’t get to do these traditional activities with them. I remember the

So it’s meaningful and productive for me to dedicate time towards spending with friends, calling family, and being together with loved ones.

It’s meaningful for me to buy mandarin oranges with leaves and stems attached.

It’s meaningful for me to wear nice new clothes during these family gatherings.

It’s meaningful for me to have gotten a haircut before new years and not to wash my hair on new years day.

The point is, productivity continues to be a subjective pursuit.

Sometimes, things can be considered productive if the parameters are right.

Other times, those same things can be considered non-productive.

But today, they are meaningful.

Happy Chinese New Year!