Happy New Year

The loud cracking of fireworks hasn't stopped since this morning. The neighbourhood is in full throttle welcoming the year of the dragon. Our family is celebrating the New Year in Beijing this year. Due to lack of space, we decided to host New Year dinner in a restaurant. I must admit I was a little disappointed. Small part of me was looking for that childhood memory of what New Year should be like.

During the day we cleaned the house. It symbolized a clean "sled" to start the new year. Dinner was great. Fish for a plentiful year, fried pineapple turnover for a sweet year, chicken, braised pork, veggies and of course dumplings! One dish baffled me a bit. Mashed yam set on a potato chip and topped with jam. It was a strange combo, but it tasted light, fluffy, sweet with hint of savory.






When dessert came around, the waitress dropped serious hints that she would like to go home soon and celebrate new year with her family. We felt bad for her and left shortly. As soon as we hit the street we were bombarded with people everywhere setting off even louder and brighter fireworks.

Line of firecrackers just about to be lit.






By the intersection of our neighbourhood, they set up a giant dragon head lantern made out ceramic plates, spoons and cups.






Dragon lantern all lit up at night.






Everyone gathered in front of the TV right around 8 to watch CTV's annual spring festival show. We ate more food like sunflower seeds, peanuts, oranges and candies as we commented on the celebrities that showed up perform, the quality of the sketches, and other random gossip. Minutes before midnight, the neighbourhood became insane. Imagine that the Celebration of Lights wasn't lit up way out in English Bay but rather in the parking lot ten meters away. I felt I could reach out and catch a spark. It sounded like a war zone. Car alarms were going off everywhere. I watched everything like a little kid with my mouth open. People looked like they were having so much fun. I was kicking myself for not buying fireworks too. People didn't stop with the fireworks until close to 2AM.

Fun note, it is tradition that during your zodiac year, you have to wear something red on you all year long. A popular item is red underwear!






- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Beijing, China

My Childhood Memories of Chinese New Year in China

Some of my favourite childhood memories are celebrating Chinese New Year in China. For a couple weeks leading up to it red and gold coloured decorations were everywhere and people would greet each other with lucky sayings such as "Gong Xi Fa Cai" 恭喜发财(wish you wealth) or "Wan Shi Ru Yi" 万事如意 (all your wishes come true). Mom and Dad would take me around and visit our relatives around town for dinner. Of course my favourite part was receiving my red envelops full of money from the aunts and uncles. New Year dinners were always the most delicious. The families normally pull out all the stops: Chinese pork sausages, freshly fried spring rolls, eight treasure sweet sticky rice, just to name a few. After dinner, oranges and tea were served and the adults would eat sunflower seeds and chat (gossip) for hours about the their year. I would play with cousins and was fed candy and treats in the other room. On the way home, I would sit on the bar of mom's bike all bundled up. I can only hear the wind blowing by and see the road underneath me rolling on which always made me sleepy. Occasionally, I would hear mom muttered to dad "it is a cold night" and then to me "almost home". 

For New Year's Eve and as long as I can remember, we had dinner at home with grandma. After dinner we would all anxiously sit in front our 15" coloured TV and watched CCTV's annual five hour long Chinese New Year Celebration show until midnight. Back in the early 80's China had about four TV channels. The show is kind of like Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve but imagine it being watched by an entire country of 1 billion people at the same time. I am pretty sure it is the highest rated show ever in the world every year. We would, of course, eat sunflower seeds, oranges and drink tea during the show. The comedy sketches were always my favourite. I also really like the pop stars they would have on the show which was not very often. The show always had way too many folk singers who would sing old folkie or red songs. Sometimes I would catch my mom, even my grandma humming along. I really wish we had PVRs back then. The stand out performers on the show often become household names the next day. Dashan or Mark Rowswell is a Canadian who was the first foreign national to become a domestic (while completely unknown to the west) superstar after appearing on the New Year show. I can still remember seeing him on the show and being amazed by his command of the Chinese language. 

When midnight hit I would rush to the balcony and watch the fireworks go off all around us. The sky would be lit up bright one flash at a time. Mom would say to me "you are now another year older." 

The next day, I would sleep in and wake up to breakfast of New Year dinner leftovers. Mom would put me in a new outfit. We would walk around the neighbourhood and chat with the neighbours. It was like Halloween, everywhere we went people would feed me candy and sweets. People would stop by our house for well wish chats as well and give me more sugary treats. I am sure mom gave away treats too. But as a kid I tended to only care about whether I got candy or not. 

Chinese New Year is technically two weeks long. But it never seemed long enough in my memories. I blinked and it was time to head back to school.

Note: 2012 Chinese New Year is on 23rd of Jan and it is year of the Dragon.