As the Lunar New Year approaches, for many Southeast Asian immigrants living in Taiwan, the holiday is not simply about “celebrating the New Year,” but more like a ritual of settling one's heart between two homelands. Some say that true reunion does not necessarily require sitting at the same table, but rather allowing familiar tastes, sounds, and customs to continue in Taiwan.

In preparation, food is often the first thing that returns to bodily memory. Vietnamese immigrants prepare common New Year ingredients in advance, such as glutinous rice, mung beans, and pork, making rice cakes or desserts so that the moment the pot lid is lifted, the smell of home fills the house. Indonesian and Malaysian families prepare spices, coconut milk, and fried foods, so their children can still taste “our family's New Year flavor” in Taiwan. Thai immigrants often connect the New Year with making merit and honoring ancestors, preparing offerings and tidying household altars or ancestral tablets, responding in a quiet but firm way to the feeling that “the family is still here.”

Beyond the dining table, home decoration is another way of celebrating the New Year. Some put up red envelopes, couplets, and red decorations, following Taiwanese customs to add festivity. Others keep blessings written in their mother tongue on doors or refrigerators, reminding themselves that they do not have to choose only one culture. For families with children, the preparation becomes a cultural lesson: teaching a New Year greeting in the mother language, kneading dough together, and taking photos of New Year greetings to send back to family group chats, so the next generation knows where their roots come from.

The most difficult yet important preparation is often emotional. Many arrange video calls in advance to “have an early New Year's Eve dinner” with parents far away, or turn red envelopes into cross-border transfers and online gifts, giving their longing a concrete form. Others choose to join hometown associations, churches, or community activities, celebrating together with people who are also far from home, sharing longing and turning it into warmth.

For Southeast Asian immigrants in Taiwan, “a second hometown New Year” is not a replica of the original one, but a way of reshaping the New Year into something that can breathe within everyday life in Taiwan. The New Year atmosphere may not be exactly the same, but the intention to keep home close remains deeply genuine.