Chinese New Years is awesome. A fifth of the world’s population resides in China, and all of them celebrate Lunar New Years in some form or fashion. It is one of the most celebrated holidays on earth, next to the conventional New Year’s Day, Christmas, Earth Day. It’s a big deal.
The following are just a few interesting facts about the holiday. Check out wikipedia for more.
- Chunyun (Chinese New Years, Lunar New Years) prompts the largest human migration in the world. This is the time when migrant laborers return home to be with their families.
- The first day of Chunyun is for the welcoming of the deities of the heavens and earth, officially beginning at midnight. Lighting fires and using knives is considered bad luck on New Year’s Day, so all food to be consumed is cooked the day before. (Bummer if you’re trying to buy freshly baked bread).
- Red packets are handed out as gifts (called licee in Cantonese and Ya Sui Qian in Mandarin, which literally means, the money used to suppress or put down the evil
spirit). I suppressed a lot of evil spirits.
Last night, I watched the fireworks over Hong Kong Harbor from a grand view at Felix’s in the Peninsula Hotel. Felix’s is one of those trendy bars that plays Asian trance music and charges way too much for weak drinks. They occasionally throw in some music by Moby just to make me angry. The view is amazing. I may have
mentioned this before, but the urinals in the men’s room overlook the vastness of Kowloon Tong from about 30 stories up. Hey I can see my house from here (while I pee). Awesomeness.
Happy New Years,
Jay
