I’m a 5th generation Chinese American. My mom and dad are genealogically Cantonese, while my wife is a second generation Chinese American whose parents are Mandarin. Our kids are Mandarin speaking. So, this is what they say to get their red envelopes. We gather at this time for a special dinner. This year the kids got together to roll dumplings from scratch with my in-laws.

[Picture is a gigantic lantern from Glendale’s Americana]

The most common Chinese ways of saying Happy New Year are Gong Xi Fa Cai (Mandarin) and Gong Hey Fat Choy (Cantonese). Even though the pronunciations are a little different, both are written the same way.

i got this from:

http://goodcharacters.com/newsletters/gong-xi-fa-cai.html