On Monday I mentioned the Chinese New Year of the dragon. In fact, the whole of this week is a holiday in China and our offices there.
Here is a special post just to share some impressions of the Chinese New Year from my colleague Joe Ye in Beijing, to give you an idea of what they are up to over there during this week, to help more people better understand China and this aspect of its culture.
There were many traditional activities for the New Year celebrations, such as
- Lotus boat performance
- Dragon performance
- Lion performance
Here are some pictures to give you an impression:
Lotus boat performance:
tieba.baidu.com/p/823383772
Dragon performance:
www.hudong.com/wiki/%E8%80%8D%E9%BE%99+%E2%80%94%E2%80%94+%E5%85%83%E5%AE%B5%E8%8A%82%E7%9A%84%E6%9D%A5%E5%8E%86
Lion performance:
difang.cri.cn/461/2012/01/04/181s12815.htm
There are two men in each lion. The back end one has to bend always, which is very tiresome. Also, the two men have to cooperate very well to perform difficult actions, for example jump onto a high table:
www.izy.cn/travel_photo/a70/56790.html
In addition to these activities, plenty of nice food is necessary for every family. We also prepare the most sumptuous feast for the most important day, the last day of the lunar year.
Firework and cracker is also necessary to make the festival joyful. Most families would like to prepare and light fireworks and crackers.
People who work outside their home town try to go home to spend the holiday with their parents.
During the holiday, people visit their relatives and family. Except for the New Year holiday, everybody is busy, and don't have time to see each other. People always visit all their important relatives, even if they are far away. We call it Bainian. And the relatives always use the delicious food to treat the guests. The adult always gave red envelope (containing money) to children. If a child has many adult relatives (who are working), he can get a lot of envelopes :-)
My eldest brother and his family visited my family yesterday. He gave a red envelope to my daughter, and I also presented one to his son.
As my daughter is young, I didn't go to my home town to celebrate the New Year. So most of the time, I stay home to accompany my daughter. Oh, yes, my eldest brother visited us yesterday; we didn't see each other for 2 years.
Quite busy holiday. That's why I call this is the 'biggest' holiday in China.
For more information, here is an entire article about the Chinese New Year.
