Get involved in the Lunar New Year

By Dr. Rochelle L. Ford, APR

Sure, it's January, but it's too late to plan your company's 2005 new year campaign. Why not reach out to Asian-Americans and celebrate the Lunar New Year? This holiday celebrates the beginning of a new year based on the cycles of the moon and will be celebrated on Feb. 9 this year.

Although many people only associate the holiday with the Chinese, it is also celebrated by Koreans, who call it "Solnal" for the first month of the new year, and by the Vietnamese, who call it "Tet" to honor the first morning of the first day of the Lunar New Year. Other countries that celebrate the Lunar New Year include Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia.

The greetings for the Lunar New Year also vary. In Chinese, it's "Gung Hay Fat Choy," in Korean it's "Saehae Bok Mani Paduseyo?" and in Vietnamese it's "Chuc Mung Nam Moi."

Many cities around the world have large-scale celebrations, particularly for the Chinese communities, that include parades, festivals, and private events in homes and places of worship.

San Francisco hosts the oldest and largest Chinese New Year parade outside Asia. In the 1860s in Chinatown, some recent Chinese immigrants, carrying banners and colorful flags, lighting firecrackers and pounding drums to drive evil spirits away, marched down what is now called Grant Avenue in celebration of the Lunar New Year. Today, the event has become a huge marketing event with major corporate sponsors helping to highlight Chinese culture. Toronto hosts an annual Lunar New Year Festival that twice has been named Best Festival in Canada. The festival also draws major sponsors who want to interact one-on-one with Chinese Canadians.

Although many communities celebrate the Lunar New Year, most celebrations are more private than public because it is an opportunity to celebrate families. According to the Xinhua News Service, more Chinese families are choosing to stay home to celebrate.

In Korea, it's a tradition to leave the major cities and return to your town of origin to celebrate Solnal. During Solnal celebrations, family members honor their elders and ancestors, share meals and exchange gifts. A tradition, meant to bring luck to businesses, is to have Korean singers and dancers perform in local businesses.

In 2004, the Vietnamese community in the San Francisco Bay area held a Tet festival that drew about 15,000 people and included dragon and lion dances, Vietnamese singers and performers, beauty contests and vendors selling traditional Tet symbols such as rice cakes and chrysanthemums. Celebrating Tet is often as elaborate or important to the Vietnamese as celebrating Christmas is for Christians, with decorations in homes, gift exchanges and visits with friends and family.

Here are some ways your organization can participate in the Lunar New Year:

• Become a sponsor or exhibitor at a community event.
• Invite a local group to perform for your customers and employees.
• Send Lunar New Year cards.
• Write about Lunar New Year celebrations in company newsletters and magazines.
• Create PSAs to honor this Asian-American holiday.
• Advertise in Asian-American media and mainstream media using a Lunar New Year theme.
• Support local college and university celebrations.
• Donate to local Asian-American organizations.
• Decorate your offices in celebration of the holiday.
• Continue to learn more about Asian-Americans as a target market for your industry.

Just think, by investing a little today, you can begin to reach the nearly 12.5 million Asian-Americans with more than $3 billion buying power.

Rochelle L. Ford, Ph.D., APR, is an assistant professor at Howard University. E-mail: rocFord@howard.edu.