Celebrations

Our first Spring Festival in China. What a wonderful week it's been. Last year, we opted for a week on the beach with friends in the Philippines so missed out on all of the festivities related to Chinese New Year. Now that we've been in the country long enough to make friends that are like family, own a cafe, and speak more of the language, we were looking forward to experiencing China's biggest holiday.

First off, China's New Year is based on the lunar calendar, rather than the Western solar calendar. So the date of the new year changes annually. This year, it fell on January 22/23. We were invited to the home of Chen, one of the other owners of Cup O' Joe to celebrate with her family. Chinese New Year is not much different from Christmas in the ways that we all celebrate by visiting family, eating a lot of food and just hanging out, watching TV, playing games and enjoying time off from work. So we were honored to be invited into her home on the most important night of the holiday.

We arrived at her apartment with Chinese sweets and jars of nuts in hand as gifts (you should see the mounds of nuts/seeds for sale at the stores here this time of year...cashews, pistachios, almonds, watermelon seeds, sunflower seeds...they are a very popular and traditional gift to give and food to offer at your home for Spring Festival). Chen was quick to apologize for the temperature of her house (about the same as outside, only no wind chill :)) and insisted we put on slippers and perhaps keep our coats on. Smells of homecooked Chinese cuisine wafted in from the kitchen and we went in to check it out and offer to help with no avail. There was some arguing over who would sit where and after persisting that Chen and her husband should take the seats of honor at the head of the table, finally we all sat down. Chen does not eat red meat and knew I was vegetarian (or as she puts it..."You...no animal"), so there were plenty of veggie options...tofu, mushrooms with greens, noodles and cabbage, da tou cai (literally "big head vegetable"), green beans, glutinous rice balls, cherries and kumquats...and then there was the meat, oh the meat...fish and egg, chinese chicken soup, dried shrimps, and more.

We sat and ate for a bit before Chen was back in the kitchen, cooking up more dishes and bringing out plate after heaping plate. They came out in courses and just when we thought we could eat no more, an empty dish would be replaced with a new hot treat to try. In the midst of all of the initial eating and cooking, Erich and I noticed Chen's husband and son anxiously looking at their watches and then the TV in the other room. We had heard that at 8pm on New Year's Eve in China, there was a nationwide broadcast that everyone watched. It seemed that our late dinner was about to coincide with the kickoff of the show and they didn't want to offend their guests. So Erich and I asked if it would be okay to move the table into the living room so that we could watch the program. They smiled wide at the suggestion and had the whole feast moved in front of the TV within seconds :) So there we sat for the next 4 hours, watching Chinese entertainment at its best...acrobats, musicals, opera, comedy skits, singers, dance numbers. Most of which was easy enough to understand and enjoy with our low level of Mandarin skills, but Chen's family was happy to translate the especially funny or poignant parts. As the program played, we ate more, drank some homemade family alcohol that was 3 years in the making, laughed, shared stories and cultural curiosities, and shot fireworks out of the window as the rest of the neighborhood was doing.

As the countdown began, we all went to the window and watched as thousands of fireworks were set off around our town. (The same types of fireworks that we set off in the states, only there are no permits or special licenses needed here. They are sold on the streets to children/adults, set off as you walk down the sidewalk and pretty much a part of daily life in China...the multitude of them at this moment was just amazing.) This video is the view from our apartment building at midnight. This fireworks show went on as far as the eye could see...it seemed that every family had purchased 1,000 fireworks and all set them off within a 30 minute time frame. I especially like Line's footage of the morning after...such a peaceful contrast to the night before...haha. Thanks to our friend Line for lending me the link since I only took photos that weren't so great of all the fireworks. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bE7qRFuqAZg&feature=autoshare

We stuck around for a bit after midnight, toasting to the hosts and to a prosperous New Year and getting invited to celebrations for Chun Jie next year with their family again, before bundling up, shooting off one more set of fireworks, and walking home. It may have been the bitter cold that evening, but our faces were frozen in large smiles as we left to go home...a memorable first Chinese New Year with our growing family here. Xie Xie Chen and Family.