The kids went back to school today after having all of last week off for Chinese New Year. And not only did they have five days off from school, Gene had three days off from work, so I guess you could say that Chinese New Year is a big deal in Hong Kong. I was told it would be bigger than Christmas, that it's the one time of year when businesses actually close. So true.
In no way, shape or form am I any kind of expert on Chinese New Year. My kids are much more well versed in the holiday than I. They talked a lot about it in school. Came home with dragon puppets and paper lanterns and lei see envelopes. Bella was even nice enough to make spring rolls for Tripp's preschool class and Tripp served them up to his pals dressed like this
Is he the cutest white "Chinese" kid you've ever seen or what?
Weeks before Chinese New Year, lots and lots of what I'm guessing are traditional decorations popped up everywhere. The market stalls looked a little like this
Lots of red and gold.
I didn't plan on decorating our place, but when I discovered that the size 3 Chinese outfit I bought Tripp was far too small (an 8 he ended up wearing! 8! What is with the sizing here?!), mother and son travelled back to Wan Chai to exchange and Tripp simply got a kick out of all the lanterns and streamers and dragons and tassels. End result, two long firecracker decorations now flanking either side of our front door and some kind of standing decoration with moving hands that runs on a battery. Hard to describe this one as, with all due respect, I still can't figure out what it is. I thought it was a pig, then maybe a cow. Bella says it's Buddha. Gene says it's a dragon. What do you think it is?
As expected, our building, The Lily, went all out with lovely decorations. Large potted flowers placed in just about every inch of the common areas of our building. But my favorite are the tangerine trees. What? Huh? The tangerine trees? Check it out
This one being modeled by my Reagan and Tripp, is somewhat small. The ones The Lily used to replace the Christmas trees of December are just that big. As big as Christmas trees! The tangerine trees are everywhere, in church, at school, outside restaurants and businesses, even for sale in the grocery stores. But, we've been told not to sample the fruit of these decorative trees as they are heavily sprayed and chemically treated to withstand the Chinese New Year season.
But (there's always a but!) the fruit vendors and grocery stores sell edible ones that are labelled as sugar tangerines. Can I just say they are absolutely addictive? Bella brought some home one day and we all became hooked. They are so tiny that's it's nothing to sit down and eat 6 or 7 just like that. Today I ventured out to a different grocery store than I usually shop and was completely overjoyed to find packages of them still for sale. Practically did cartwheels in the aisle to celebrate.
What I found got the adults, at least the ex-pat adults, buzzing the most about Chinese New Year is the tradition of lei see or red envelopes or red packets. Basically it boils down to this, the service people who are always giving you a hand (i.e. the security guards who hail you taxis, the nice people at the concierge desk who arrange to have your pictures hung and your faulty hot water heater looked at, the janitorial staff who are constantly cleaning your children's nose smudges and sticky fingerprints off the glass doors), you give them a little extra something, what we in the U.S. would refer to as a "tip". It's not really a difficult concept or a financial hardship. But when it's your first time experiencing the tradition, you want to get it right. So leading up to last week there was a lot of bus stop chatter about how much to give and who to give and how to give. Consensus was that most people get $20 HK, that's like $2.50 US. But the Lily workers that we especially like got a little more. So, you take your crisp new Hong Kong bills (don't use old, wrinkly money) and load them up in the lei see envelopes. Then throughout the new year, as you happen across deserving workers, you wish them well and hand them a packet. Easy, peasy!
We found many businesses started giving out free lei see envelopes for use after the new calendar year began. Check these out from the grocery store
The Muppets!
And these were from the electronics store
Monopoly man!
I bought these nice ones downtown causing my husband to ask, "why the heck did you buy some?". But when it came to envelope stuffing time, he agreed that the ones I actually purchased were a much nicer quality then the freebies.
It goes without saying that there were lots and lots and tons and tons of activities to celebrate. Activities like parades and fireworks and special flower markets and ceremonies. But with massive crowds, late start times, distance to travel to said events, and two "littles" with early bedtimes, we failed to experience those celebrations this year. Luckily, The Lily arranged to bring some tradition right to us, right here at our building. Unluckily, it was on Friday when Gene was already back at work, but me and the kids enjoyed the experience of The Lion Dance.
After watching the lions perform, The Lily set out a really nice spread. So while the kids were picking at their roast pig and fried rice I wandered back outside to find a strange site. A "lion" stuffing cones of lettuce leaves into his mouth and then spitting them into the lobby of each of our building's four towers. The building manager explained to me that he was bringing fortune to our homes. Ok. Bring it. But someone clean up the salad fixings please? Here's a pic before the lettuce went a flying into tower 3.
I said at the start of all this that I wanted to experience a life different than my usual. This is different than my usual. I eagerly await all that is in store for me and my family in this new year, the year of the Dragon.
Kung Hei Fat Choi! Happy New Year!
