AHC: Make Spring Festival Popular in the West

[pa_dutch]

Despite having miniscule Christian populations, Japan and China have embraced many of the aesthetic elements of Christmas. Japan has done this moreso than China, but in both countries it's not uncommon to hear Christmas songs playing on department store radios, see Christmas trees and lights in hotel lobbies, and see restaurant windows adorned with snowmen and Santa Claus. At least here in China, where I live, few people actually do anything in their own homes to celebrate Christmas beyond the small number of Christians who gather together to pray and sing and maybe hold a food drive. For secular Chinese, the only tradition they have is to give out apples on Christmas Eve, a homegrown custom based on the similarity between the word for Christmas Eve (Ping An Jie) and the word for apple (Ping Guo). Yet, in the commercial world, the Christmas spirit is alive and very pervasive in shopping malls, clothing stores, franchise restaurants, and bars, among other places.

On the other hand, the biggest Chinese holiday, the Chinese New Year or Spring Festival, exists in Western countries as an ethnic celebration in Chinatowns. Vietnamese and Korean populations also observe their own ancient versions of the Spring Festival which also originated in China. How could we make it so that Spring Festival holds a similar status in Western countries as Christmas does in Eastern ones, with Western storefronts decked out in Chinese New Years decorations?

 

[SlyDessertFox]

The first thing that came to mind is more Chinese immigration to the US and somehow limiting racism against Chinese immigrants. With a larger Chinese minority and the Chinese (well, I guess from the viewpoint of American society, Asians in general), being somehow being seen as "white", there's a chance Chinese customs and holidays, including Spring Festival could become "traditional" American holidays, like other ethnic holidays are, such as St. Patrick's day.

How you get that acceptance of Chinese in American society back at a time when America was incredibly racist however is another question.

 

[Pragmatic Progressive]

For Europe, Germany needs to win World War One and then be stable for a long time. Of course, it can have civil unrest, changing governments and so on, but the Empire must be stable. We must avoid World War II (which we can likely do by the UK going Syndicalist after this longer WWI, maybe also with an authoritarian or totalitarian US?).

In this scenario, say the eastern borders of the Germanosphere are Brest-Litovsk borders and the USSR does not go communist, but either democratic, stays Tsarist, or gets balkanised, Germany keeps (and possibly later expands) the Tsingtao colony. If there is mass exchange (students,....) bettween this Tsingtao colony and "mainland" Germany, the Spring Festival could maybe get "mixed" with either German Fastnacht or Easter and could become very popular.

This could be done to an even greater extent if Germany and not France is getting Indochina. Maybe after a World War II (in the above scenario) against a radicalised France which is fully defeated and Germany gets all the French colonies?

This would meet the challenge for Germany, Austria, Hungary, Poland, Ukraine, Netherlands, Belgium, quite possibly also for Scandinavia. Italy, Spain, Yugoslavia and Greece depend on the alliances of Germany...

 

[pa_dutch]

The first thing that came to mind is more Chinese immigration to the US and somehow limiting racism against Chinese immigrants. With a larger Chinese minority and the Chinese (well, I guess from the viewpoint of American society, Asians in general), being somehow being seen as "white", there's a chance Chinese customs and holidays, including Spring Festival could become "traditional" American holidays, like other ethnic holidays are, such as St. Patrick's day.

How you get that acceptance of Chinese in American society back at a time when America was incredibly racist however is another question.

Cinco de Mayo is an interesting model, as it also became popularized in the United States despite racism directed toward people of Mexican origin. It has a material association with aesthetic elements of Mexican culture, including Mexican cuisine, mariachi music, sobreros, ponchos, and tequila, but it's well-known and recognized by people of all ethnic origins, and observed by quite a few as "that day we should go to our favorite Mexican restaurant, or maybe add some tequila and stereotypical Mexican decorations to our regularly-scheduled college party". Most people who aren't of Mexican heritage don't even know the origins or the meaning of the holiday beyond a general sense of celebrating all things Mexican. Cinco de Mayo celebrations, through the influence of the US, have even spread to parts of Canada, the Caribbean, Europe, Oceania, and even Japan.

Remember that the popularization of Spring Festival in the US wouldn't need to happen very early on, as Christmas in Japan and China has only become very popular within the past half century. I very much doubt Chinese were clamoring to celebrate Christmas during the Cultural Revolution, or most Japanese were putting Santa decorations on their shops during World War II.

Also, my challenge doesn't mean a wide-spread adoption of Spring Festival in the West - Just a recognition of it. Businesses decorating their shops with Chinese New Year decorations, Spring Festival as a popular theme for one-off episodes of sitcoms, and perhaps a wide-spread urge to eat Chinese food on the first day of Spring Festival (bars advertising egg rolls and shrimp toast as the daily special appetizers, college parties with bowls of fortune cookies alongside the keg of beer, etc). Maybe even more popularized discussion of the animal-of-the-year according to the Chinese zodiac in mainstream culture.

 

[Just a Rube]

One option would be to do something like Columbus Day: a more politically powerful lobby of Asian-Americans manages to get it designated a federal holiday. Once that happens, it becomes an obvious time to have special sales at e.g. car dealerships (compare with President's Day, Veteran's Day, Memorial Day, etc., all of which tend to feature tons of commercials saying "come to X car dealership for our incredible Y Day SUPER Sale"). You could have it start in Hawaii or the West Coast as a state holiday, and spread from there.

 

[eliphas8]

Honestly, given how the new the phenomenon were talking about in China and Japan is? This might be able to be justified through the interplay of the hippies and the new left in the west. International Workers Day and Spring Festivals overlap well, and if the movements manage to turn Mayday marches into a bachanal it will probably catch on outside of those groups.

Edit. I didn't realize you meant specifically Chinese spring festival, thought just general spring festival could work.

 

[fastmongrel]

In the British Isles there was a Spring festival which took place on Pentecost known as Whitsun.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whitsun

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parish_ale

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whit_Friday#Whit_walks

In the Medieval period farm labourers were hired for a 51 week year and got paid on Pentecost Sunday. Hiring fairs for the next year were held in the week after and I imagine money was spent on booze and gambling . In the north of England this evolved during the Industrial revolution into the tradition of Wakes week which was a holiday.

Whitsun and Wakes Week have died down now with just a few traditions still left but at one time it was as big as Christmas. We just need a point of departure to keep the tradition going and let it become as tasteless and commercial as Christmas.