The story of how hosting a Taiwanese exchange student introduced our family to meaningful Lunar New Year traditions at home.

When we unexpectedly opened our home to a foreign exchange student from Taiwan, we had no idea how much it would enrich our family. What began as a leap of faith turned into one of the greatest blessings we’ve experienced. Through his traditions, especially celebrating Lunar New Year together, our family of nine has learned about symbolism, reunion dinners, red envelopes, and the beauty of welcoming new beginnings. This is the story of how we became a host family and the meaningful Lunar New Year traditions we’ve embraced along the way.

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How we ended up with our foreign exchange student

Let me give you a little back story first of all. We had never planned on being a host family for a foreign exchange student. My parents housed a foreign exchange student from Japan when my youngest sister was a senior in high school. And while I thought it was awesome, I never envisioned it with my family.

We have a BIG family - 7 kids! Four of those 7 kids are still living at home. We have a married daughter that lives nearby and 2 college age sons that are living here at home on and off still. Our house often feels very full and busy.

The first few months of the school year, my son who is a junior in high school, would tell us about a boy in his math class from Taiwan. They would speak to each other through google translate and had become good friends.

One day my son came home from school and sat down heavily in a chair at the kitchen table. He opened up and told my husband and I how he was so sad because his Taiwanese friend was going to have to go back home to Taiwan because things weren’t working out with his host family. To my surprise, immediately my husband responded, “why doesn’t he move in here?”. I was a bit shocked, was nervous, and concerned since we still have young kids in the home. We don’t know this guy, is he going to be respectful and kind to me and my young children? But I prayed and listened to that little voice encouraging me to go for it. We agreed we should give him a shot. He moved in a few days later! It was a very quick turn around.

It’s been the BEST EXPERIENCE! Better than I could have dreamed of. He fits in so well with our family. He’s kind, generous, helpful and respectful. We’ve loved showing him our culture (Christmas was especially magical), and have had the best time learning about his.

Lunar New Year has been an extra special way to learn about Taiwanese culture. The whole holiday is filled with symbolism and tradition. It’s so cool!

Here are some things we have learned that you can share with your family!

Decorations:

Part of Lunar New Year tradition is decorating together. Originally, I thought I would decorate and surprise my exchange student, but I’m really glad he let me know we were supposed to do it together. For one, I probably would have had the decorations all upside down! Haha!

Lanterns and red decorations are a big part of Lunar New Year. Lanterns represent light, hope and a bright future. Red represents good luck and protection from misfortune.

We got some lanterns that light up, as well as some decorations that are supposed to be placed around the front door. We got everything on Amazon:

Sweep Away the Bad Luck

Every Lunar New Year the family deep cleans the house together- to sweep away the bad luck from the previous year. My kids weren’t thrilled with this tradition, but I though it was great! Traditionally you don’t clean during the New Year’s day itself (and even collect the trash in the house for a week) because it is believed you may “sweep away good fortune.” - my kids LOVED that idea!

Want to make this activity a little more fun? Try this fun way of mopping! (At your own risk!)

**Don’t have IG and want to watch this on** **YouTube? Check it out HERE!!!**

You can also use these festive cleaning lists to help divvy out the work!

Grab this Lunar New Year Cleaning List printable in our Freebie library!

Reunion Dinner

On Lunar New Years Eve, families get together for a Reunion Dinner. Everyone travels to be together. Our exchange family all gathers at the grandparents’ home. There are may different dishes they make (women are usually cooking all day), but one dish suggested by the mother of our Taiwanese exchange student, was Hot Pot.

Hot Pot symbolizes reunion and has a simple broth with vegetables, meats, and milk. You set it on the table (we had our pot on a hot plate) and people can dip raw thin strips of meat, etc to cook while you’re sitting and eating together. We also cooked rice and noodles that you put in a bowl and then can spoon the broth from the Hot Pot over the rice or noodles. Hot Pot is also served with a dip such as a soy sauce or a soy sauce mixture. You dip the vegetables, meats or noodles in the sauce and eat with chopsticks.

We also had a candy tray with Taiwan chocolates wrapped in gold foil.

What to wear?

Red is a lucky color in Taiwan! If you have it, that’s the best color to wear. Some people dress in clothing that represents the zodiac animal that goes with the year. This year is the year of the fire horse. Here is a great website to teach kids about the zodiac animals.

Red Envelopes

Red Envelopes (Hongbao) are super fun! Because Lunar New Year is their huge holiday of the year, married people (grandparents, parents, older relatives etc) give younger people and children envelopes that are filled with money.

When you pass out the red envelopes there are some lucky phrases your kids can say: "Gong Xi Fa Cai" (wish you wealth) and "Xin Nian Kuai Le" (Happy New Year).

Our sweet exchange student had envelopes for all of us with some Taiwanese money inside. It was really fun to see what their currency looks like. We also passed out red envelopes to him and our children with American money.

Find a Lunar New Year Celebration Near You

Many cities have different celebrations for Lunar New Year. We drove across the Dallas metroplex to a Lunar New Year celebration at Asia Square in Grand Prairie/Arlington where they had stands set up with Asian street food, Lion Dancers, and lots of shops with souvenirs for purchase. Festive music was playing, decorations were over the top, and it was really fun to grab some boba, tanghulu (fruit covered in a crystal like sugar), and treats from 85 degree bakery.

Have fun together!

Whether you are playing games or just chatting and having a great time, it’s a celebration! It’s fun and the whole point is to create a happy and lively atmosphere.

It’s been an awesome experience! Do you have any experience with Lunar New Year? Come see me on Instagram- send me DM! Or shoot me an email! Let’s chat!!

love your fellow mama BFF,