Kung Hei Fat Choi

Happy New Year!  In Cantonese, it's pronounced, Kung Hei Fat Choi, and it's the biggest holiday in China, soooo, off to the beach! Rented surf boards for the boys, but it was a bit tough to actually get a picture while they were actually standing on the board, so I thought it was best to just take the close up.

It's the Year of the Horse, for those of you not up on your lunar new years. This is C acting like a horse!

CNY. I'm learning to write this when referring to Chinese New Year because I'm constantly texting or referring to this consuming holiday that I don't understand very well. I think this is what someone from Russia must feel like when they visit America on Thanksgiving weekend. At any rate, for those who might want to read, I copied this from the boys' school's weekly email.

What is Chinese New Year?
Chinese New Year is the most important of the Chinese holidays, and is a time of feasting with the family, celebration, fireworks, and gift giving. It is a 15-day holiday, beginning on the first day of a new moon and ending with the full moon on the day of the Lantern Festival. The Chinese calendar is based on the lunar year, so the date of Chinese New Year changes every year. The Chinese calendar follows a 12-year pattern with each year named after an animal, which is also known as the Chinese zodiac. There are various stories that explain this. The simplest is that the Jade Emperor invited all of the animals to join him for a New Year celebration, but only 12 animals turned up. To reward the animals that showed up, the Emperor named a year after each of them in the order that they arrived, starting with the Rat, followed by the Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Goat (or Sheep), Monkey, Rooster, Dog and Pig. The year of the Snake is the sixth of the 12-year cycle of animals that appear in the Chinese zodiac.

Chinese all over the world celebrate this important holiday. Other countries, such as Vietnam, Korea, Japan, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, list the Lunar New Year as a public holiday.

Year Of The Horse

1918, 1930, 1942, 1954, 1966, 1978, 1990, 2002, 2014

In 2014, the year of the Horse begins on January 31, 2014. According to Chinese Astrology Calendar, it is the Year of Wood Horse. As wood is related to tree or green, it is also called Year of Green Horse. In Chinese culture, Horse is a symbol of nobility, class, speed and perseverance. People born in the Year of the Horse are smart, fabulous speakers who have a gift for getting through to other people. People bearing the horse sign strive towards seeking freedom and happiness. Clickhere for more information.

The Chinese New Year Legend
Long ago, the world was not a safe place; monsters dominated the world. There was one horrifying monster that came out on the same day each year to eat people. This monster was named Nian, and the people marked the end of a year by his visits to the human civilization. That is where the Chinese word for "year" came from. This monster was the most feared by people because every time it came out, whole villages would be destroyed. So, every time the monster would come out, people would huddle together in their homes and stay up all night, hoping not to be eaten. This happened for many years until a wise man thought up a plan to scare the monster away. This man proposed that the people should light bamboo. The bamboo would crack and make a lot of noises, possibly scaring the monster away. The villagers thought this was a very good idea and started to light the bamboo. The noise was tremendous. The monster was scared by the loud noise and ran back to its cave without eating any people. The next morning, everyone was present. They were all elated. The people congratulated each other for executing the plan effectively. From then on, people stayed up late, lit firecrackers (to simulate the lighting of the bamboo), and congratulated each other every New Year.

Getting Ready for Chinese New Year

In the run up to Chinese New Year, homes are spring-cleaned thoroughly so that all the bad luck of the previous year is swept away. On the first day of the new year, brooms and dustpans are put away and never used in case the good luck of the new year is swept away! Very often houses are freshly painted. Traditional Chinese homes sometimes get a new coat of red paint, as red is a particularly lucky color. Homes are decorated with paper-cuttings. Chinese couplets are also used to decorate homes. These are two tall posters, usually consisting of 4 to 7 Chinese characters, which are hung on either side of the front door. The couplets express traditional good wishes for the year ahead.

Lai See Packs/Red Envelopes - 利是袋/红包

At Chinese New Year, parents, family and friends give money in red envelopes to children. The red color symbolizes good luck, and the amount of money can be anything from a small coin to a larger amount. Lucky money envelopes are also known as Lai See Packets or Red Envelopes.

punishment

You know, I never seem to learn my lesson.

This is my son - my oldest, my baby, my leagacy - playing RUGBY!  What?  Is this punishment for all the years I bad-mouthed American Football, ranting about every medical study done on the affects of mulitple head injuries received while playing this "mindless" game. The boys really hate it when I use that word, and they make a point of telling me, when I do use that word, how predjudice I sound.  I deserve it, but I still seem to use "mindless" a bit too often.

So, rugby is really big here. HK was under British rule for something like 150 years, only ending that rule in 1997; and the Brits love rugby, so here it is.  And, every Sunday morning on our way to church, I see fifty or sixty little boys and girls, as young as five, playing rec league, preparing for the future (future of brain scans in my opinion, but that's bad-mouthing, apparently, and I'm moving away from that punishment-producing habit).

The first game sent one boy to the hospital, but this hardly stopped the game, and hospital visits seem to be the norm for game days. The woman sitting next to me at the game said she likes to be at all the games (her son plays with Forrest, but her daughter plays on the girls' varsity team, as well) because she wouldn't want her son to have to go to the hospital with someone other than her.  What? That's a reason to make sure I make it to the game? It is now!

And, finally, who picks these outfits?

extremes

I find these extremes funny!  Day of departure from the US - January 5th at the mountain house with a temperature of about 5 degrees

HK - January 17th just below our house as Forrest and Claire paddle on the paddle board from beach to beach with a temperature outside of 65.  We have yet to see temperatures below 50 degrees, but the down coats are out in abundance while our family hits the beach every weekend.

Hank always captivates passerbys. While we were letting Hank fetch and swim, someone came up to Jeff and asked to take a pictures. And, reminiscent of an earlier ferry ride, the person gave Jeff a camera and sat next to Hank for Jeff to take a picture of Hank with this stranger.

Uncharacteristic

Wow! December 12th was my last post.  Who knew I could be quiet for that length of time in any setting.

I think one of the most difficult aspects of living in HK is the transient nature of the expat community. While I've met many people who have been here as expats for more than ten years, I find that most from Europe and the States have been here for less than five, with the knowledge they will move elsewhere near the end of that five year mark.

With the wrong attitude this can keep great friendships from forming. One couple who consistently have us over to their apartment for dinner will move back to the US in June, and this makes me sad. We laugh together, eat together, go to church together - and will soon live 8,000 miles apart.  We can step back from this wonderful family, or we can enjoy months of great friendship. We choose the latter.

To be honest, I didn't think much about our choice (because Jeff and I didn't really consider stepping back from a friendship due to a separation) until a sweet woman in my Bible study told us they would be moving back to the US in the summer (another friend).  She has children in middle and high school, so someone asked if her children had told their friends.  She then said the saddest thing of her daughter who hasn't told any of her friends that she is moving at the end of the school year. "If I tell now," the daughter says, "I won't have any friends the rest of the year."  I asked why, and the mom said it was because these girls realign their friends when they know someone is moving.  How awful, but I'm sure this is not the case for every girl in that school.  And, I told her that Forrest, who is a friend of this little girl, would not have that same tactic.  But, I was saddened for this child and any other who felt this way. In such a transient place it seems better to grab hold of friends and love until the moment they load the contaniner and step on the plane. I'm determined to do this for myself and to teach this to the children.

Now, to something funny!  I only have blips of insight.

Market photos - I can't say grocery store anymore because no one knows what the heck I'm talking about.  I'm at the store this week in the fish section, which is painful for the olfactory system, and I see this.  Really?  This is on ice for anyone to buy. And, there were only a few left.  And, half of these remains have more "stuffing" than the others. Does this mean the buyers are checking out the insides? I didn't ask because the language barrier with the "meat men" behind the counter is pretty high, and because I think, deep down, I don't really want to know. It's all I can do to keep Taylor from pushing on the eyes of the fish heads in the packaged section.