Monday, February 19, 2007

Chinese New Year Traditions

There are some endearing traditions in Hong Kong during Chinese New Year.

The whole celebration is based on a myth that once a year a beast named the Nian would come down from the mountains and eat people, so they would have to shoot off firecrackers and dress in red to scare it away.

And if frightening away a man-eating monster isn't a good enough reason for a fifteen-day party, I don't know what is.

Other traditions include cleaning, a bunch of strange sweeping rituals as well as alterntating good luck and bad luck days for totally random things. Feb 20th is a bad day for gardening, but Feb 15th is a good day to get a haircut and Feb 23rd is a good day for a long shower. So bizarre. It is also lucky to open windows (will let in good spirits), eat candy (for a sweet year), and wear red underwear (for gambling). It is bad luck to buy shoes, or pants (because the character is similar to the character for bitter, of course!), or wash your hair (washing away the good luck).

They also give out laisee fawn, or the red packet, which contains the most personal gift of all: warm, soft, cash - in even numbers.

I've been taking this time off to relax and check out some of the things CNY in HK has to offer. On Friday I went to the flower market in Victoria Park to move in an organized swarm of thousands of people and get yelled at by colourful strangers weilding inflatable nicknacks and balloons. Saturday I went to Macao to try my hand at Baccarat. Yesterday I went to see the parade in TST and watched the back of a thousand heads. Today is the fireworks I can check out from my apartment building and tomorrow is my chance to make peace with the Gods of Luck at the horseracing. It's an eventful holiday filled with the the two cornerstones of Chinese culture: family and luck.