Chinese New Year
Our neighbors were particularly accommodating and on Chinese New Year Eve we had the most personal displays of fireworks imaginable. We literally stood in front of our window and watched them explode right in front of our eyes. I even thought a few shoot offs hit the window It was so fun! A few nights later when Nik and Mckenzie visited the boys decided they really should try the fun for themselves so they bought a few boxes and lit them off in the courtyard while the girls and children watched from the windows. I decided I wanted a better picture and stuck my head out the window. That was a mistake. A shoot off actually flew in the window and went down my back. I screamed and shook it off, waiting for some chemical burn, but it actually just felt cold and wet, and disintegrated into a little pile of red on the floor. It did scare me a little. I will keep the windows closed for future reference.
Chinese New Year begins with small New Year (one week before the big day). It is the start of preparations for the festival and is the time when everyone begins cleaning their houses from top to bottom, getting hair cuts, and buying new clothes. The Chinese believe that the New Year must be started off on the right foot and everything must be clean and new, all the way down to their underwear :-) The fireworks begin that night in small quantities and the first round of jiaozi eating begins. Seriously superstitious people burn a likeness of the kitchen God (which hangs in their kitchen all year round) and send him off to report on the state of their home for the year in hopes of good luck in the coming year. On New Years day they hang a new likeness to watch for the coming year. This is my 3rd Chinese New year and I am finally now starting to understand some of the customs surrounding the season.
On this week people begin the huge country-wide migration back to your hometown or home village. Most people are not really from the cities in which they dwell so people take every form of transportation available, cars, buses, trains, and planes, to make the journey to their place of origin. If you are married you must return first to your husbands old home. As a married woman you would bring bad luck to your whole village if you visited your parents home before the 3rd day of the New Year. Even if you tried to return home they most likely would not welcome you until the 3rd day into the festival. By New Years Eve most people have reached their destinations and are settled in for a long celebration. New Years eve day the families gather and cook a large meal to be shared in the afternoon. After this they clean up the whole house, and then begin wrapping jiaozi for the evening meal.
In the evening the whole country gathers round their TV's (even in the villages) and watch the gala which is a several hour long program of entertainment including musicians and comedians. This commences before midnight and everyone then heads outdoor or to the windows for the firework displays. Fireworks shake the cities and villages from all directions in magical displays of color and sound. The noise is deafening and the view is spectacular. The families then return indoors where they eat the mountainous piles of jiaozi prepared over hours of conversations.
The next morning the family visiting commences. You must go to each house in the village to visit, aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents, old friends, and friends of your parents or grandparents. If you are a child you receive a red envelop with money for each house that you visit with the amount pertaining to the closeness of the relationship. The visiting and eating continues for three days and then if you are married you move on to the wife's family home. There you continue the tradition of eating and visiting, and traveling to the many homes of the village or town to meet with old friends and family. The week is long and tiring, but the fellowship and family time are precious for these hard working people. As a city dweller I am shocked each year by how silent the city is. There is no traffic, barely any cars, mostly all shops are closed. The only restaurant open in my entire city was Pizza Hut and KFC. All other restaurants, western and Chinese were closed for the week. You can walk down the main streets of town without worrying about cars or traffic or people. It really is a shocking change from the normal throngs of people and vehicles on the city streets. Some people find it troublesome and hate the inconvenience, but I find it quite refreshing. As a foreigner the week for us is quiet and peaceful. We spend our days playing and relaxing, and our evenings being dazzled by fireworks. On the 7th day things begin to return to normal and bigger business reopen. But smaller shops often stay closed until the 14th day, The Lantern Festival, which is the official end to the New Year's festivities. This year is the year of the dragon which is a hugely symbolic and lucky year for Chinese people. The baby boom is being predicted everywhere. The decorations for this year were particularly beautiful as the Chinese are enthralled with dragons and do a wonderful job of displaying them. Despite our health problems, I have thoroughly enjoyed this Chinese New Year. I love watching how excited my Chinese friends are for the chance to have a break from work, and celebrate with family and friends. And I love the week of quiet with my family and the chance to sit in as a quiet observer on the beautiful traditions of China. We felt quite Chinese this year as we consumed our piles of jiaozi and lit our very own fireworks :-)
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