Chinese New Year: part two
I would still like to wish you all 'Gong hei fat choi!', which roughly translated, means 'Congratulations and be prosperous!', wishes that are even more appropriate in the current economic climate.
Not wanting to bring you down with plummeting-economy chat, I thought I'd continue on along the theme that I left you with, and impart my summarised version of what happens during the most important of the traditional Chinese holidays. Incidentally, did you know that it's not just celebrated in China, but in most areas where there are large populations of ethnic Chinese, like Korea, Mongolia, Nepal, Bhutan, Vietnam and parts of the USA, Canada and the UK?
Clearly these celebrations aren't actually up to much though, as we still see a time of Chunyun (aka Spring Festival travel season), the largest human migration, where migrant workers in China and Chinese living overseas return to China to celebrate with their families. As job opportunities have opened up further away and Chinese students are now able to attend university overseas, the number of people coming back has increased exponentially, reaching 2.26 billion in 2008. That's more people travelling at once than actually live in China! It would also explain why, when Pies and I went out on New Year's Day, streets that are usually heaving were like a ghost town, as even if you're an expat (i.e. not going back to China) it's the perfect time to go away due to the five days off in a row. That's if you're happy to pay the extortionate prices, of course!
First things first then. Being an Eastern celebration, it goes without saying that it has its roots in mythology - apparently, in ancient China, a mythical beast called the Nian, with the body of a bull and the head of lion, used to rock up to villages on the first day of the new year and have his fill of livestock, crops and people, particularly juicy little children. Naturally, the village folk weren't best pleased about this impromptu feast taking place on their doorstep, so they started to put food out for the beastie, in the hope that he'd eat that instead of young Timmy (or whatever kids were called in ancient China). They also noticed that one year, the Nian had the willies put up him and was scared away by a child in red, so in subsequent years, the villagers hung red lanterns and red spring scrolls (wouldn't that have been a better story if it had been red spring rolls?!) plus they lit firecrackers to give him a case of the heebie jeebies. You'll be pleased to know their efforts were successful. He never came again.
I'll go into more detail tomorrow on what actually
happens on the days of the new year, but before I go today, I wanted to share with you some of the things the Chinese have to bear in mind in terms of good or bad luck around this time of year.Things that are said to bring you good luck:
*Opening windows and/or doors welcomes in the good luck of the new year (hmm, it's still a bit chilly here in Hong Kong, and I don't really fancy making it easy for any cheeky shyster to waltz in unaided to steal my 'luck'!)
*Switching the lights on at night is meant to 'scare away' spirits of misfortune that will meddle with your luck and prosperity in the following year (yes, but surely you'll have spend any prosperity on your massive 'leccy bill from leaving all the lights on? Seems a teensy bit counter-productive to me...)
*Eating sweets to guarantee that you have a 'sweet' year (yeah, right - any excuse for gorging on lollipops and king-size bars of Dairy Milk, eh?)
*Cleaning the house to 'sweep' away the bad luck of the previous year before New Year's Eve; you have to be careful not to miss the window though, if you clean on New Year's Day, you'll sweep away all the good luck - it's a very tricky business (though to me, this just sounds like common sense if you're expecting visitors in the next few days; you don't want them to think you live in a pigsty)
*Bathing in pomelo leaves on New Year's Eve should ensure you'll be healthy for the rest of the year (that's as may be, but won't you smell a bit, well, leafy for the next few days??)
*(and my personal favourite) Wearing a new pair of slippers (that you bought before the new year) symbolises stepping on people who gossip about you (now, if it was me who had devised said tradition, it would be a new pair of hob-nailed boots, so they actually hurt more than some soft slippers. What's that? It's just symbolic? Rubbish. Must have been slightly confused with voodoo practices...)
And on to the bad luck inducers:
*Buying a pair of shoes because the Chinese character for 'shoe' is a homophone for the character for 'rough' (Cantonese) and 'evil' (Mandarin) [how can buying a new pair of shoes ever be confused with something evil?? It's a wonderful thing!]
*Saying words like 'finished' and 'gone is inauspicious at the beginning of the new year, as is talking about death (though surely you should avoid that at all other times too as it's just downright depressing)
*Wearing anything black or white: black is a symbol of bad luck and white is a traditional funeral colour (oh dear, I wish I'd read that before the new year...)
*Buying a clock for yourself or as a gift - traditionally it means your life (or the life of your recipient) is limited (errr...ok, but how am I supposed to not be late for stuff? Maybe that's what the sundial in the grounds of our apartment complex is for!)
*Buying or reading books due to the character for book sounding just like the character for 'lose' (now surely that gives every kid in the land a damn fine reason not to do any homework and to avoid reading David Copperfield which you've been hailing as a 'classic' for months?)
*(and my personal favourite for the specificity of its reasoning) Getting a haircut in the first lunar month puts a curse on your maternal uncles (crikey!)
PS This is my 50th blog post! Feel free to have an extra glass of the bubbly stuff on me next time you're out!
