Celebrating Chinese New Year

Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on how you think of it), we were gone on the BIGGEST holiday in Taiwan…Chinese New Year. We left for Cambodia on New Year’s Eve and didn’t return until the week after. However, that being said, the weeks leading up to the New Year were still filled with lots of fun.

New Year in Taiwan is honestly like Christmas in the USA. The stores are teeming with candy, red signs, gifts, and FOOD! Boy, there was so much food EVERYWHERE! Much of the food seemed odd to me, and I cannot imagine giving it as a gift…unless I wanted to scare my host; however, I suppose it would be different if I grew up with it :). I can successfully sing 3 New Year songs…not because I learned them in a class, but because the same songs are played in EVERY STORE you walk by. It was really cute at first, but trust me when I say it gets old.

Just walking around the streets of Taipei the week prior to New Year was also fun. I could feel the excitement oozing from people as they roamed the streets. I knew something must be up on the Thursday prior to New Year (which was on a Sunday) as I went to the traditional market at my usual 8:15am time expecting it to be sleepy and quiet as usual. You can imagine how shocked I was when I discovered that not only were all the stands open, but it was packed with people! Much like Christmas Eve’s eve is a huge grocery shopping day, so is New Year’s Eve’s eve!

Elaine made a great sign for our door which is the Chinese symbol for Spring…which is deliberately hung upside down to symbolize ‘Spring is Coming’. Brianna also made a large red banner for our living/family room which says ‘Happy New Year’ in Chinese…I have to say that her calligraphy is not bad!

The girls’ school had a Chinese New Year celebration the day before the New Year break. All of the kids were invited to wear traditional Chinese clothing (a qi pao for girls) or to simply wear red if they did not have anything else. Keeping with Chinese New Year tradition, the girls each received a new dress for the New Year, which you can see here. Ok, yes, I AM that mom and I make my girls wear matching dresses. I realize as Brianna is now 9 (OMG is she REALLY that big??!!), I won’t be able to do this for that much longer, so I better milk it as long as I can!

The celebration was very simple. Elaine’s class had a Chinese feast with traditional dishes. Each dish had an explanation of its significance (e.g. noodles to represent long life). Of course, the kids pretty much ignored it all and went for the New Year candy, but hey…the adults appreciated it!

Brianna’s class did not have a feast; however, the school did invite a local acrobat troop to come and entertain the kids. I was able to catch a glimpse of a bit of it…quite entertaining. The kids were performing martial arts, including walking on egg shells (and not breaking them). One adult even jumped on the eggs…without breaking them!!!

One aspect that most people think of during the New Year season is fireworks! This is another great thing about Taiwan…the fireworks are not only really cheap, but they are WAYYYY better than the ‘Pete’s Piccolo’ that I grew up with! We snagged a few bottle rockets, some flying bee-type things, firecrackers, and a real Roman candle one night. We then invited our neighbors to meet us on a random Thursday night to light off a few. You can see here that Terry wasn’t quite sure about some of them! The kids (and adults) had a GREAT time…all for about $8 :). Gotta love Taiwan!

When we came back from Cambodia, we were so excited about New Year that we wound up buying MORE fireworks. This time, feeling a bit cocky from our last fireworks extravaganza, we bought some SERIOUS fireworks. We bought larger bottle rockets, some cool sparklers, more of the flying bee-type things….and a secret box!

Man, it was like 4th of July! Sooooooo cool! I will NEVER view the 4th of July in the same way again. Lighting off your own fireworks (by the safety of the water in the river in a humid environment, of course!) is the ONLY way to go. Man, that box lit up the sky! Next time I think we’ll go for the BIG box :).

While we missed out on much of the New Year hoopla, I’m excited with what little I was able to experience. There was am overwhelming sense of closeness with family and friends which reminds me again that Taipei is not that much different than California. While our traditions may be a bit different, the underlying sentiment that sharing fellowship among friends and family is the reason for the season is the same. I’m looking forward to staying here next year for New Year!