Happy Lunar New Year, from our team to yours! Around the world, more than two billion people celebrate the holiday. 2023 is the year of the rabbit (in Vietnam, the rabbit is replaced by a cat). In Chinese culture, the rabbit is known as the luckiest out of all twelve animals. The rabbit symbolizes mercy, elegance, and beauty, and 2023 is expected to be a year of calm and peace.
We thought it would be a fun way to celebrate by sharing our team’s favorite traditions. Here are a few anecdotes from the Oliver teams in China and Singapore. No matter how you celebrate, we wish you a 2023 filled with good luck, peace, and prosperity.
Brady Tong | General Manager—China
My favorite part of the holiday is my family reunion dinner, which we do on the eve of Chinese New Year. This dinner is often thought of as the most important meal of the entire year, and the tradition includes getting as many family members as possible to sit down and enjoy being together.
This is especially important when family members live away from their hometown. The dinner is plentiful and there are many different dishes and drinks prepared, some which symbolize luck and good fortune. It is believed that eating “lucky” food will bring prosperity in the next year. The best part of the dinner is that the family will share stories of fun from the past year and welcome the new year with cheers for good wishes & good luck. After dinner, parents and grandparents give each child a red envelope containing lucky money. All the kids are excited by this part!
Carol Xu | HR Manager (China)
There are many traditional ways we celebrate China’s Lunar New Year. One family tradition has been unforgettable to me. I still remember clearly how reluctant I was when my parents made me do it. However, I miss it today and wish I could do it again. On the first day of our new year, after breakfast, my dad always took me to visit our neighbors with him, one by one. I greeted the elders, and the neighbors warmly invited us in with candies, nuts, fruits and most important, a cup of sweet warm water! It left my mouth sweet all day, which was symbolic for only saying good words all day.
Evon Chin | Pricing Analyst (Singapore)
My favorite part of Lunar New Year is my yearly reunion with friends and family as I have family members living overseas that I don’t see all the time.
Khim Neo | Customer Care Lead (Singapore)
My favorite part of the new year celebration is that I get to eat many special snacks endlessly throughout the whole Chinese New Year period, without being scolded by my parents!
Nurul Faiqah | Marketing Associate (Singapore)
The best part of Chinese New Year is that we get to enjoy special goodies like pineapple tarts, which is something I always look forward to.
Pawanjit Singh | Senior Pricing Analyst (Singapore)
Lunar New Year symbolizes reunion, prosperity, and welcoming in the new and the good. We say Gong Xi Fa Cai, which in Mandarin means: Wishing you an expansion of wealth, or in other words, May everyone get rich!
Sherry Liu | Sales Director (China)
Personally, I like to buy flowers to celebrate the New Year, not only for decoration, but also hoping it will bring the spring season earlier. On the eve of the new year, my family sits together to make dumpling, or Jiaozi to celebrate the Spring Festival. All family members join the work together, even the kids. The shape of Jiaozi is like gold ingot from ancient China. People eat them and wish for money and treasure!
Sofia Baek | Inside Sales Manager (Singapore)
Koreans celebrate Lunar New Year, too! We are having dumpling soup with rice cakes called Tteokguk. When I was young, our family gathered and made dumpling together, which was special!
Wendy Gan | Regional Manager (Singapore)
Lunar New Year is about spending time with my family, those I don’t get to see daily since many of them are in Malaysia in different cities. This is the time for me to make my way to Malaysia and meet with them to celebrate.
