The Chinese New Year, Spring Festival, is a big day when family members and friends gather together with a reunion dinner to celebrate the past and look to a new year. In celebration of the festival, we had a special “meal” with T-accounts and Balance sheet as the appetizers, Leadership Stream and case-solving as the main dish, and for dessert, homework and group discussions.
Reunion is always the theme of the Spring Festival. To me, this year was an unforgettable and meaningful experience because we celebrated the Chinese New Year with other 88 classmates from different cultures and backgrounds. We look so different; we speak different languages. But still, we shared many common grounds; we are willing to share with and learn from each other. So it was a big reunion with life-long friends who will grow together in the future!
The song brought back lots of memories and emotions for the Chinese New Year:
“In my memory, the Spring Festival is a long, long holiday. Family members always start early. Children want to participate as adults as well. When I was young, all I could do was to help mom do cleaning and decoration. To clean houses before New Year Eve is a custom dating back thousands of years. The dust is traditionally associated with “the old” so cleaning houses and sweeping the dust means farewell to the “old” and usher in the “new”. My younger sister and I help Mom sweep the floor, wash things and so on. We do all these things happily in the hope of a good coming year. New Year couplets are usually posted in pairs as even numbers are associated with good luck and auspiciousness in Chinese culture.
One big moment for us is getting “gift money”. It is the money given to kids from parents and grandparents as a New Year gift. They put the money in red envelopes since we Chinese people think red is a lucky color. Parents want to give us both lucky gift money and lucky blessing. On the first day of the new year, it’s customary for us to visit grandparents, wishing them health and longevity. We are happy to get a big “red envelopes”. In addition, the Lion dance is a traditional celebration performance asking for “good luck” for the coming year. The lion dances in rhythm and interacts with the people. People who are running business believe this ceremony will bring good luck to the next year and make more money.
I was not able to be home this spring festival, but my mom still sent me a big “gift money” via Alipay. Thanks mom and dad for your support and love.” – Rui Meng, China
Wishing the IMD MBA class of 2020, our professors and faculty, all IMD staff and our blog readers a spectacular Year of the Mouse!
