The Year of the Tiger began on Feb. 1, the start of 2022’s Lunar New Year. Among many Asian communities, this festival holds significance as the denoter of new beginnings and prosperity – being able to celebrate it to the fullest, surrounded by friends and family, while completing all the old traditions, is a distinctive part of the importance of the occasion. In UC Irvine’s own student community, the popularity and crowd at ASUCI’s Lunar Night Market indicated how enthusiastic the student body was to have an opportunity to be able to celebrate culture.
As the popularity of the occasion increases in western communities, Lunar New Year becomes a festival that begs the question: should it be made a federal holiday? The short answer is: absolutely.
Doing so would benefit the people that need time to spend with their families on the momentous festival, to mark the beginning of a new year. It would also help create a larger inclusivity in the American calendar of holidays – especially in the past years’ cultural climate that has given way to the Stop Asian Hate movement.
New York Rep. Grace Meng introduced a bill on Feb. 2 to make the festival a holiday, in order to “recognize the cultural and historical significance of Lunar New Year.” Through this, she emphasizes that the broader American communities also understand the belief that giving Lunar New Year recognition in the federal sense would not only validate the cultural conflicts faced by the country’s growing Asian-American population, but would also ensure that students around the country learn about the necessity of respecting diversity.
Simple recognition may truly end up being the key to harmony. When traditions can be understood on a wider scale, societies can become more accepting of diversity.
Since some school districts in New York, Virginia and Iowa already close for Lunar New Year, establishing Lunar New Year as a federal holiday would give the festival more validity. Several Asian-American communities tend to feel displaced in the country even if they have lived here for generations. This cultural confusion can be attributed to the lack of mainstream awareness and acceptance of different cultures. Taking the first steps toward recognizing the cultural diversity that the United States hosts would be the first step toward creating a community that is not plagued by cultural divide.
Making Lunar New Year a federal holiday would allow for the festival to be celebrated in its entirety, and would also help other communities pitch in for increased awareness of different cultural traditions. For the Washington Post, UCI’s Professor of Asian American Studies Judy Wu stated that, “Lunar New Year celebrations, while rooted in tradition and culture, have also been important for Asian Americans for economic and political reasons.”
This sentiment is clearly echoed by lawmakers. Ensuring that Asian American communities have the opportunity to celebrate a festival that is integral to their roots would help create a sense of compassion within communities that would ensure that Asian Americans aren’t forced to be conflicted between their Asian and American identities, as perceived by those around them.
The acceptance of this proposal would guarantee that future generations, regardless of racial descent, will respect and value the different perspectives surrounding celebrations that exist. Since several people mark the occasion with an ode to their ancestors, this bill would also do the same. Asian communities were ridiculed for simply existing and following their traditions and cultures in the 19th and 20th centuries (with a rise in those similar emotions today).
We need to honor the traditions that have borne hurt over a long period of time, especially with the recent rise of incessant intolerance, by giving cultures the respect and recognition they deserve.
Nandini Sharma is an Opinion Staff Writer. She can be reached at nandis2@uci.edu.