Happy New Year Everyone!

The first day of the new year!  After being in China for 8 years,  I have realized that December 31 and January 1 is a non-event for most Chinese people.  Of course in the U.S. it is the beginning of the new year, but in China, Spring Festival marks the beginning of the New Year, so while we are reminiscing over the past year and making resolutions or plans on how we will make the most of the New Year, my Chinese friends just offer it a passing interest like we would give Presidents day.  Yeah, it’s a day off and a nice time to go out to eat or get together with friends, but it is not a serious celebration.  In the U.S. it’s the crowning event of the holiday season which began with Thanksgiving, crescendoed at Christmas, and ended with a bang a week later with New Year’s Eve.  Ususally, after New Years Day we take down the Christmas decorations and pack them away until next year.  I have always thought it funny that Christmas decorations here in China stay up til long after Chinese New Year it seems.

New Year’s celebrations in the West are a bit different from Spring Festival or Chinese New Year.  In the west, it’s not such a big family day.  In fact, when I was a kid, my parents usually got a baby sitter and went out to a big dinner/dance party and celebrated till the wee hours of the morning.  Us kids usually stayed up with the babysitter watching the Dick Clark show to ring in the New Year.  Dick Clark was the host of a teen dance show through the 50’s and 60’s and maybe beyond, but I quit watching.  Anyway, it was a cool show when I was young and they always played up-to-date music, much better than the shows the older people watched on New Year’s Eve.  Of course, the Chinese TV stations also have a show to ring in the New Year, both the western one and the Spring Festival. The Chinese shows are quite an extravaganza, much too much sentimentalism and patriotism fo rmy liking, but to each his own (that means whatever everyone prefers is ok.)

Of course in the U.S.we usually stay up until midnight on New Years Eve and make a lot of noise when the clock strikes 12. No fireworks though like at Spring Festival. John, my husband is happy there are fewer restrictions on fireworks here in China. All of his pent up desires to make loud noises with fire have been released. I think it’s some kind of primal urge. Every year he loads up on 5 inch mortars that, when lit, go soaring into the night sky and explode into colorful showers of sparks to the oohs and aahs of the crowd below. The fact that they are such a bargain here is double icing on the cake (an added bonus).