“I’m really looking forward to going home this time,” Sandyby says. “I’m thankful that I’ll be able to see my whole family.”
It has been three years since the young communications professional from Hong Kong came to Shanghai. She last saw her family in 2020 when she visited them for the Lunar New Year, or Spring Festival, as it is known in China.
The visit came just before the pandemic was declared — and in the years since, China’s zero-covid policy, which required travelers to quarantine for weeks, has kept him away from home. Now that most Covid restrictions have been lifted, millions of Chinese are traveling home this weekend to celebrate the start of the Year of the Rabbit, which falls on Sunday.
But the sudden reversal of zero Covid has seen a spike in cases in recent weeks, leading to what is the biggest holiday of the year for the Chinese.
It’s an opportunity for families to come together and celebrate each other’s successes, and regroup for a fresh start. But this year will be bittersweet. Even as large parts of China turn red for the festival — the color of the Spring Festival — it’s hard to miss the white, which symbolizes family in mourning.
Some families are eager to gather around the table as usual, while others are not celebrating because they are mourning the loss of a loved one, or caring for a sick relative. are And then there are those who are celebrating, but with a heavy heart, well aware of the empty seats.
Melody Liu, who lives in Beijing, lost her grandfather earlier this month, just weeks before the Spring Festival.
It was a chaotic time, she says. The family could not get an intensive care bed for several days. And then, with cemeteries and funeral homes filling up, they had to pull strings to find a final resting place.
Melody and her family aren’t in the mood for a holiday this year — but she says they’ll visit anyway because her 90-year-old grandmother still hasn’t learned of her grandfather’s passing.
“We told him that his grandfather is still in the ICU. We can’t tell him the truth,” says Melody. “I think he’s still here and watching over us.”
His former employer, a government agency, has already sent home a holiday gift as they do every year. And Melody says her family will also carry on the tradition – she’ll buy new clothes for her grandmother, and she’ll wear them to sit for family photos, red and for a better year. There is hope.
But she says it’s not the same: “I’m not looking forward to the new year anymore because it’s been a really bad year for us.”
Sandy says she’s been lucky. She has been hearing stories of friends losing family to Covid – but her 87-year-old grandmother has only just recovered from the infection.
She looks forward to family reunions – a once-a-year opportunity for her grandparents, parents, their siblings and cousins to meet for a feast. There is always a sweet and sour fish or yu which symbolizes abundance – in Chinese, it sounds like the word for “more”. The other constant is a sticky rice cake or naya gao, synonymous with “growing bigger every year”.
Food is at the heart of celebrations. Zooey Li, who grew up in Wuhan, remembers most about not being able to make it home during the pandemic during the last three reunions.
For as long as she can remember, her grandmother has been the menu planner and head chef. Dumplings, spring rolls, sausages, rice wine – it was all homemade. The star is crispy lotus root, a local specialty, stuffed with pork.
Although she hasn’t been home for the past three years, she says she recreated her favorite dishes to banish nostalgia: “My family’s New Year traditions have subconsciously become a part of my life.”
But this year, she’s not expecting an invitation – she hasn’t had her usual energy since her grandparents recovered from Covid.
This time around, such crowds or small gatherings won’t be unusual because so many people have the virus, or have recently been in contact with someone who was Covid-positive.
Kelly Lee’s 93-year-old grandfather has been in the hospital with a Covid infection since late December.
“I just wanted to go home and see it one more time,” says Kelly, who flew home for the weekend from Hong Kong to the southwestern city of Chengdu, where she now lives.
She says this is her family’s first lunar year without a big reunion dinner — she’s been around for the past three.
This year her mother also has covid. And others in the extended family are visiting sick relatives, leaving Kelly to spend time with her father and grandmother who have just recovered from Covid.
But she says she is grateful for the time she spent with her grandmother: “There will be very few opportunities like this in the future.”
