A Chinese New Year Celebration, but a Different Day

Chinese new year is the most important holiday in the entire calendar.  With a full 15 days of celebration, it almost makes Christmas seem like as important as a coworkers farewell coffee and cake in the kitchen. 

Last year for the festival, I was on a train to Lijiang and watched a passing village’s fireworks out a train window.  This year I resolved it would be different.  The difficulty is that everyone returns to their hometowns for the holiday, meaning all my friends are gone.  We solved that by moving the date.  Yes, it’s like celebrating Christmas on December 29^th, but it’s still celebrating.

 

The first tradition is making dumplings by hand.  Kellen and I were nearly clueless, so we relied on our Chinese counterparts for everything.  This was the first time anyone had made dumplings without the guidance of an elder family member telling what he or she is doing wrong.  Don’t worry, there were many phone calls to family members to check how to do every step. 

 

Zheng Ting, Jason, Kellen, Della, and I all gathered at school to make hundreds of dumplings to welcome the new year.

 

As is tradition, a coin is placed in the filling;  the person who chooses the dumpling with the coin will be fortunate in the new year. 

Being it’s not my tradition, I had fun choosing the coin and selected one that said “Bathroom Token: Valid for one Visit.”  (Probably from some airport automated bathroom service in whatever country.  Don’t worry, they made us wash, scrub, and boil the coin first to sanitize it.)

 

Most importantly, there were fireworks.  The night always ends with fireworks.  As written previously, it’s a war-zone around this time.  We gladly contributed. 

Here, Kellen and I explore the storage area of a distant (somewhat rural) grocery store where the owner sells fireworks year-round.  This large circle of firecrackers totaled $19.  Next, you see Kellen’s excitement to light a firework usually illegal in any other country.  We bought it for 50 cents. 

 

Finally came time to light the fireworks.  We had things that glow, spin, pop, bang, and crack.  Everyone dives in and makes a ruckus.  That’s actually the goal; the fireworks scare away the “Nian” monster.  I conclude that he’s well terrified.  I was.

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Happy spring festival, but on a different day!

 

Later Days,
Rick