Shannon Patterson, right, and her husband Rich Patterson watch their daughter Sophie Patterson, 4 and a half, as she plays with a Chinese lion dance toy at their home in Vancouver, B.C. Lunar New Year, which reunites families around the world, does the same for the Pattersons. They take in Vancouver’s Chinese New Year parade and share dim sum with six other local families with whom they traveled to China to pick up their babies.LEANNE ITALIE
NEW YORK – With its fireworks, family reunions and feasts, Lunar New Year is the longest and most important celebration for millions around the world.
For kids adopted from China, it holds special meaning. Lunar New Year makes them mini-ambassadors of a culture they know little about firsthand.
There’s no official handbook on how far parents of internationally adopted children should go to celebrate their kids’ birth cultures, but marking Lunar New Year – Year of the Dragon begins Jan. 23 – is usually one of those times for Asian children.
Their parents decorate front doors, throw dumpling-making parties and stuff red envelopes with money. They clean their homes at the start of the 15-day celebration and hang red lanterns at the finish. Others keep it simple, sharing dim sum with friends at a restaurant or watching dragons dancing at parades in Chinese enclaves in their cities and towns.