Xin Nian Kuai Le! - Happy New Year! 新年快樂

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I am never going to be able to fully describe how it feels to be in China for our first Chinese New Year.

Gong Xi Fa Cai! – Congratulations and Be Prosperous

For those of you who don’t know, tonight is New Year’s Eve in China. This is the biggest holiday and celebration of the year. It starts tonight and last for 15 days. Here in China the holiday is called Spring Festival and it marks the start of the new lunar year. This coming year will be the Year of the Ox, an animal that symbolizes calm, hard work, resolve and tenacity. Based on 2008, I think the Ox has arrived at the right time. For the past few weeks, all over China everyone has been preparing for this holiday. Traditionally, families will clean their homes thoroughly to remove all the bad luck from the old year and to make room for the good luck of the coming year. Everyone will wear new clothes and get a haircut. New Year’s Eve is spent having dinner with family and watching fireworks. Many millions of Chinese will travel back to their hometowns to spend the Spring Festival with their families. For many this is the only time of year they can spend together since they have often traveled hundreds or thousands of miles from the birthplace to find work.

After decorating our front door with the traditional red couplets and donning our finest Chinese clothes, we spent this evening with members of our local FCC (Families with Chinese Children) family at a local restaurant. The restaurant was completely booked and aside from our FCC group, there were also a number of Chinese families from grandparents to small grandkids. The dinner started with making our own dumplings, which were then cooked for us, and was followed by so many dishes I can’t begin to list them. There were more plates of food than we could possibly eat and we spent the night juggling the plates to make enough room on the table for everything. In between courses the restaurant had activities for all the kids – they included small hand-held sparklers (which Aimee managed to burn herself on!), various types of fireworks and firecrackers, which never seemed to stop coming and the finale was a Pinata! I was quite surprised by this one, but hey the kids loved it. I have since learned that like most other great inventions, the Pinata is thought to have originated from China… When the last tiny little girl took her best swing and burst it, sending candy flying over the floor, the kids went wild. It was a free for all as the kids scrabbled to get loot. It was the perfect end to a great evening. The thing I was most surprised at was the price of all this entertainment. The dinner was 50rmb ($7) per adult and kids were free. We just paid for our drinks, which were 18rmb each. So basically, the 5 of us were entertained and fed non-stop for 4 hours for less than 300rmb ($40). What a great evening. We had a blast. The owner and staff at the restaurant were so nice and so happy to share their culture with us all. We promised to go back after the holidays to sample their regular menu and to thank them for such a great time.


Hansen and his girls - You would think all those beauties would put a smile on his face...


The Choi family celebrating their first New Year in China


Hansen tries his luck on the pinata


Check out Cady's technique - she bagged a ton of candy


My handsome boys - aren't they gorgeous?


Pretty Girl Cady

Adorable Aimee

Hansen finally smiling since he knows the food is coming

On leaving the restaurant it was strange coming home since the streets were pretty much deserted. Normally 9.30pm on any night would see crowds of people wandering the streets and shops, but tonight everyone was already home with their families. Everywhere you looked the sky was being lit with fireworks. It is an incredible sight to see and words will never do it justice.

Right now the kids are tucked up in bed (with ear plugs) and Richard and I are waiting to see the spectacle the stroke of midnight will bring. Huge, loud fireworks have been going off continually since around 5pm this evening, but we are told that the sky and the city will erupt at midnight. The past 30 minutes has seen the number of fireworks increase and I can only imagine what is going to happen in 15 minutes time....


Making the dumplings


Fireworks in the plaza outside the restaurant


Pinata fun