Welcoming the Ox

Say goodbye to the Year of the Rat; it's officially the Year of the Ox.

All over the world, Asian communities are ushering in the 15-day holiday.

Locally, 35 families began their New Year celebration Sunday at the 10th Annual South Orange/Maplewood Chinese New Year party, sponsored by the South Mountain Families With Children From China, a local chapter of a national network of families who have adopted children from China. The festive gathering was held at the DeHart Community Center in Maplewood.  

In the traditional Chinese calendar, the year is divided by the cycles of the moon. Each cycle is 12 years long, and each year is represented by a different animal. If you were born in the Year of the Ox (1949, 1961, 1973, 1985, 1997 or 2009), along with President Obama (1961), you are said to be a natural leader with enduring strength. 

The DeHart Community Center was transformed Sunday with red-and-gold lanterns and balloons, banners and children's art work. As families arrived, the children paused at a large map of China to write their names on tape and place them on the city or town they came from. Many of the children wore traditional Chinese outfits, satin tunics with gold embroidery. 

Alan Levine, one of the organizers, is the only person who has attended all 10 of the annual parties. He explained that some adoptive families have moved, while others have older children who have developed their own interests. Most of the children at the party were between 4 and 11 years old.

There were fewer younger children than in previous years because of the Chinese government’s tightening of regulations regarding international adoption. However, 15½- month-old Rachel Anne Jing Mayer, who arrived home on Nov. 5, was in attendance, enjoying her first M/SO New Year’s Party.  
 
"We began our paperwork in February, 2006," her mom, Shari Mayer, said of the adoption process. Many months later, she and her husband traveled to China, getting lost on the dirt roads of rural towns en route to being united with their daughter. Recalling such moments has always been a feature of the gathering, as the community of adoptive families meets its newest members.  
 
In addition to a banquet provided by Bill and Harry’s, a Maplewood favorite, attendees enjoyed crafts and calligraphy practice and entertainment by singer-songwriter Cynthia Lin and storyteller Cecelia Yu, a teacher at Bilingual Buds.

Students from the Livingston Chinese school performed dazzling tricks with Chinese yo-yo's.

Best of all, a lion dance, accompanied by traditional drumming, snaked through the crowd, chasing away evil spirits and welcoming in the New Year.

The children decorated cupcakes and grabbed for sweet tangerines, symbols of abundant happiness—an appropriate ending to the joyful event and the beginning of the New Year.

Editor's note: Kahaner is the mother of an 8-year-old adopted daughter from China.