Lunar New Year is Upon Us… it’s Time to Prepare.
Content Notes: cultural discussion of Lunar New Year food traditions, mentions of bullying and cultural discrimination, chronic illness and low-spoons context
Welcome Back to the Den
This is The Crippled Cryptid.
It’s Folklore Wednesday. Our First ever Folklore Thursday Mini!
The lights are lower than usual. The air is listening.
This is the day we loosen the knots and let the old stories stretch their limbs.
On Folklore Wednesdays, we talk about the things that learned our names before we learned theirs.
French spirits and English ghosts. Indigenous stories that remember the land better than maps ever did. Old gods. New monsters. Familiar shapes wearing unfamiliar faces.
This is the day of hedge magic and hearth magic. Of charms whispered into sleeves. Of creatures that don’t wait for nightfall and spirits that have never respected bedtime.
Some of what lives here bumps in the dark.
Some of it walks openly in daylight, unbothered, unafraid, and very aware of itself.
You don’t need to believe.
You just need to be respectful.
You just need to listen.
Pull your chair closer.
Folklore is a living thing.
And today, it’s awake.
On Today’s Menu: Foods That Carry Luck, Prosperity, and Protection
Before you think you’ve read that wrong, don’t worry. You didn’t.
In honor of Lunar New Year, I wanted to switch things up just a little. This is our first-ever Folklore Thursday Mini, meant as a warm-up for next week’s full Folklore Wednesday feature.
Who knows, maybe it’s something you’ll see again. Isn’t that exciting?
This is a smaller bite than usual. Something meant to be savored, not rushed.
A quiet plate. A full heart.
Lunar New Year follows the moon, not the Gregorian calendar. That’s why it arrives at a different moment each year, guided by lunar cycles older than borders, carrying renewal with it wherever it lands.
Spoiler: next week, we’ll be talking about the Year of the Fire Horse.
Something M&M hasn’t stopped talking about for two very specific reasons:
- It’s the first time this combination has appeared in 60 years.
- It’s the 30th anniversary of Pokémon.
Yes. We’re nerds. It’s okay. We know.
And don’t worry. Pokémon Day and the 30th Anniversary celebrations, especially the Chicago events, will absolutely get their own post. We have every intention of making it to the Pokémon Fossil Museum.
Today, though, we’re talking about one of my favorite parts of Lunar New Year preparations.
Food.
And the way food carries luck, prosperity, and protection into a new year.
Meals That Mean Something
Dumplings.
Long noodles.
Sweet rice cakes.
Tangerines.
Fish.
Spring rolls.
Tangyuan.
Lucky candies.
Like all living traditions, what appears on the table changes by region, family, and memory. These foods are common symbols, not rules carved in stone.
Folklore tells us these foods are more than delicious. They’re symbolic. Magical, even.
Dumplings resemble ancient coins and invite wealth.
Long noodles represent longevity. A wish to stretch life as far as possible. And honestly, who doesn’t want that.
Sticky rice cakes promise growth, elevation, and forward motion in the year ahead.
Tangerines and oranges aren’t just sweet. They’re little sunbursts of luck, promising abundance with every peel. I still remember the sound of skins tearing open, citrus oil misting the air, juice slick on my fingers before the first bite even hit my tongue.
Fish is served whole so fortune can flow from head to tail. Saying yú isn’t just wishing for fish. It’s wishing for surplus.
For a year where there is more than enough.
Spring rolls hide tiny treasures in their folds. Crunchy promises of wealth, ready to be unwrapped.
Round, sticky tangyuan are edible hugs. Family. Unity. Closeness in every bite.
And sweets. Red candies, melon seeds, and other traditional treats aren’t just sugar. They’re little packets of hope for a joyful, sticky-sweet year.
In some homes, these foods are offered first to ancestors or spirits. In others, the act of eating together is the offering. Both are ways of saying: you are remembered. You are welcome here.
Steam curling off bamboo baskets. Chopsticks tapping porcelain. Ginger and sesame lingering in the air.
Every bite carries a story.
A hope.
A blessing.
And if you didn’t know, these are also some of my favorite foods.
If you’re ever trying to bully me into doing literally anything, odds are all you need to do is promise dumplings, noodles, or hot pot.
Blame M&M. She’s the reason I started learning about Asian cultures to begin with.
This is a low-spoons, cozy-read kind of post.
No pop quiz at the end.
A Quick, Necessary Sidebar
Before we go any further, let me say this clearly.
This is not me piggybacking on someone else’s culture for clicks or aesthetics.
That’s not who I am. It never has been.
M&M has Iroquois ancestry in her family history, something widely believed to trace back to eastern Asia. That history doesn’t make these traditions mine. It makes learning with care non-negotiable.
Over time, you’ll see us talk about French, Canadian, German, and other traditions too. But today, we’re talking about China. Because Lunar New Year is upon us. And that matters.
Throughout this post, I’m using proper names.
I won’t whitewash them.
I won’t rename them for comfort.
I won’t call foods by vague substitutes when I know their real names.
There are entire communities saying, clearly and repeatedly, that these foods belong to them. And there are platforms pushing back, renaming them, or joking about how people were afraid to bring them to school because they were labeled “weird” or “smelly.”
That’s not harmless.
That’s not funny.
That’s not okay.
Names matter.
History matters.
Culture matters.
We don’t tolerate bullying here.
You can dislike something without being cruel.
Opinions are fine.
Being a jackass is not.
Learning with respect is not the same as claiming ownership.
Food as Folklore, Everywhere
In China, food is a language. A way to invite good fortune and ward off harm.
But this idea isn’t unique.
Across Europe, coins are hidden in cakes to bless the one who finds them.
In many Indigenous cultures, the first harvest is shared with the community or offered to the spirits as gratitude.
Food isn’t just nourishment.
It’s a bridge.
A conversation with the unseen.
A way of saying, Thank you for carrying us this far. Please walk with us a little longer.
I love that.
I also use food as a language.
If I like you, I’ll invite you into my home.
If I love you, I’ll feed you.
There’s nothing quite as magical as a home-cooked meal.
And it leaves something to be said when I stop cooking for you as well. It means that you have betrayed me in some way, and that I no longer wish to put anything into you good or bad. Food for thought.
A Gentle Blessing to Take With You
This Lunar New Year, or during any winter feast, remember that magic doesn’t have to be elaborate.
Sometimes it’s a plate of dumplings.
A shared dessert.
A meal eaten with intention.
Not every celebration looks like a crowded table. Sometimes its takeout dumplings eaten slowly, alone, in bed. That still counts.
Eat mindfully.
Honor the stories.
Let the spirits taste a little joy too. 🥟✨
If you feel like sharing, I’d love to hear about a meal that carries meaning in your family.
I plan to take you along on my Lunar New Year adventure, even if a good chunk of it happens in Bed Jail™.
Fortune doesn’t always arrive as abundance. Sometimes it shows up as warmth, safety, or a meal that reminds you that you’re still here.
The Closing of the Circle
That’s where we’ll leave the circle open for now.
If something followed you out of this story, you’re not in trouble.
Folklore has always liked company.
If something here felt familiar, trust that.
Old stories recognize their own.
Folklore Wednesdays are about remembering.
About honoring what survived being passed mouth to mouth, fire to fire, body to body.
Thank you for sitting in the magic with me.
For listening instead of demanding proof.
For letting strange things exist without taming them.
Until next time, keep a light on if you need it.
Or don’t.
Some of us see just fine in the dark.
Love you. Now say it back.
-Sky
© The Crippled Cryptid
Disability, folklore, and survival magic.
(And always a little bit of dog fur for morale.)
🔗 https://linktr.ee/skylanarissa
No pressure to donate. Staying, reading, and sharing is already an offering.
If you want to support the long, slow work of staying alive and telling the truth:
💜 https://www.gofundme.com/f/support-skys-journey-to-health-and-mobility
Leave a comment