新年快樂! I finally experienced how Chinese people celebrate the Chinese New Year.
I don’t call it ‘Chinese New Year’. Koreans call the New Year’s Day by lunar calendar ‘Old New Year’ because that’s what their ancestors celebrated. So that, this is my holiday as well. If I were at my home country, what would I do right now? Making mandoo (Korean style dumpling) for three days, preparing holiday food with my mum and eating dduckguk (rice cake soup) for New Year’s Day tradition. That’s why how I can charm people with my cooking skill – trained for a long time with holiday cooking. Or, I would travel – because new year’s day is the longest holiday as an office worker; 3 days. Glad I’m not anymore.
Anyway, today is their New Year’s Day. For the past few days I’ve been staying in Jianshui, Yunnan, I had a chance to see how Chinese are celebrating their the biggest holiday. It involves a lot – I mean A LOT of fireworks, putting flowers on the street, setting up red lanterns and red and decorating red-yellow ribbons everywhere. And the fireworks peak at midnight.
The strange thing was, they’ve been preparing the celebration for a long time, and magically everything shuts down at New Year’s Eve. No cars, no people, no shops, only Chinese teenagers with fireworks on the street. And the following morning, the New Year’s Day, everyone is on the street, celebrating with their family. The night before was like the calm before the storm. The change was quick and surprising. Though, it’s nice to see people are keeping the tradition and celebrating it with their family.
Here are some photos of how people are celebrating Chinese New Year in Jianshui, Yunnan Province, China. 新年快樂!
