Susan's Shanghai Blog - Week 28 - Chinese New Year

This week is Chinese New Year, or the Spring Festival. IBM China is on holiday this entire week, although Tom and I both are working here and there. I'll start with the normal "history lesson" :-)

Chinese New Year is the most important holiday in China. Sometimes it is known as the Spring Festival or Lunar New Year. It marks the end of Winter, hence the name "Spring Festival" which is odd for me because this year it is in January, which is definitely NOT Spring in China! The dates of the Spring Festival changes each year, and this year, Chinese New Year itself is on January 23rd. In the Chinese calendar, the winter solstice must occur in the 11th month, which means that Chinese New Year usually falls on the second new moon after the winter solstice. The Spring Festival runs for 15 days, ending with the Lantern Festival.

This is when most of the Chinese will travel back home to spend time with their families. Talking to the people at work, most were traveling home by train (cheaper and more tickets available) but some traveled up to 15 hours each way by train. There was a story in the newspaper of a man trying to buy a train ticket to his hometown and was only able to by a "standing ticket" for the 38-hour train trip. Hmm...I'd stay put! People spend money to buy presents and decorations as well as traveling. It is tradition that families clean their homes to sweep away any ill-fortune to make way for incoming good luck. Doors and windows get decorated with red paper cutouts with various themes of good fortune, happiness, wealth, or longevity. On New Years Eve (Sunday night this year), families gather for traditional dinners and end the night with firecrackers. Early the next morning the children get up and wish their parents a healthy and happy new year .. and in return they get red paper envelopes filled with money. More history later ....

As I walked around the week before Chinese New Year, I took pictures of the various decorations around town. You'll see lots of red and yellow (mostly red). According to legend, Chinese New Year started with a fight against a mythical beast that would come eat livestock, crops, and children. One day, people saw that this beast was scared away by a child wearing red and so this is why many of the decorations are red. This is also where the use of firecrackers came into being, as they would use firecrackers to frighten away this beast as well.

This is the Super Brand Mall, and they have changed their decorations on the outside for the Year of the Dragon.

Lobby of the Jinmao Tower where Tom works.

The IFC Mall, as normal, has really nice decorations for the various holidays.

Starbucks has started 2 new offerings for the holiday (see the little dragon on the sign) ... Valencia Macchiato (orange flavored) and a Peach Blossom Tea Latte (no clue, haven't tried that one yet).

In our complex, the buildings are all decked out with red lanterns, as well as a lit tree in the lobby. You'll notice the firecrackers underneath. The 2nd tree picture shows after Chinese New Year, when you'll see that the tree has "sprouted" red envelopes. These are the red "money" envelopes that are traditionally given to children on Chinese New Year. There are also these red woven decorations everywhere ... I'll have to ask someone at work what is the significance. We also have decorations that look like firecrackers all over.

Our apartment management company left us a little gift for the holiday ... a little stuffed dragon (well, not really so little). He is adorable! We have a red stuffed bulldog at the house in Cary, so we're planning to take this little guy home and have both of them.

HSBC Building

We were out one day on Nanjing Road, and we were looking at the MASS of people walking around, as well as the decorations.

They have a new guard-puppy at the Shanghai World Financial Center (SWFC) where we got alot for lunch. We took a couple pictures from the back as he was sitting there ... all cute in his little stripped underwear!

The Chinese calendar has 12 different animals and each year has an animal. These started (for example) with 2008 with Rat, then Ox (2009), Tiger (2010), Rabbit (2011), Dragon (2012), Snake, Horse, Goat, Monkey, Rooster, Dog, and Pig (2019) and then it wraps back to the Rat again in 2020). From a couple news articles we're seen, children born under the Dragon are somewhat "special" from a Chinese culture perspective.

As mentioned, the Spring Festival lasts for 15 days, and there is something special about each day:

• First day - this is for welcoming the deities from heaven and earth. Is it considered bad luck to use knives and fire, so all of the food consumed on this first day is cooked before. It is also considered bad luck to clean.
• Second day - this day is known as kainian or beginning of the year and it is traditionally when married daughters visited their birth parents, since this didn't happen very often. Some also believe this second day is the birthday of all dogs, and they give their puppy pets special treats.
• Third day - this day is known as Chikou or "red mouth". Traditionally not a good day to socialize or visit friends and relatives.
• Fourth day - some places only celebrate the new years for 2 or 3 days, and the fourth day is when corporations would "kick off" the new year with a "spring dinner" and businesses return to normal. This would seem somewhat true and somewhat not from my perspective. Many of the mall stores were open on Monday (first day) and IBM doesn't go back until Sunday (yes, we get off the whole week but end up working part of the weekend). However, I tried to make a spa appointment and they were closed until Thursday.
• Fifth day - In some parts of China, this is the day you eat dumplings! It is also the most common day for firecrackers, which is an attempt to get Guan Yu's attention, thus ensuring his favor and good fortune for the coming year.
• Eighth day - another family dinner is held to celebrate the birth of the Jade Emperor (the 9th day) and by the eighth day, government agencies and businesses are back open. Store owners will sometimes have a lunch or dinner with their employees to thank them for their work.
• Ninth and Tenth days - the ninth day is the birthday of the Jade Emperer and prayers are offered and the Jade Emperors' party is also celebrated on the tenth day.
• Thirteenth day - by now, we're consumed too much food over the past two weeks celebrating the new year, and so today people will eat pure vegetarian food to clean out their stomachs. This day is also dedicated to Guan Yu, who was a general in the Han dynasty. He was considered the greatest General in chinese history and represents loyalty, strength, truth, and justice.
• Fifteenth day - This is the Lantern Festiveal, when people eat rice dumptings, a sweet flutinous rice ball brewed in a soup. Candles are lit outside the houses to guide wayward spirits home and families walk the street carrying the lit lanterns.

We came back into town on Monday (First Day or Chinese New Year day), so we are not sure what festivities occurred on the Chinese New Year's Eve. I must say, the airport was empty (and I do mean EMPTY) on Monday around noon when we got back into Shanghai. We were 4th in line at immigration, which never happens! But the metro back to the apartment was pretty well filled, and we went by both the IFC Mall (for lunch) and the SuperBrand Mall (for grocery shopping) and they were just as busy as normal. At night, we saw fireworks going off next door in Yanlord Gardens, and firecrackers all the time! It was like being in a warzone (at least I assume, never having been in one) with firecrackers going off right and left all night long.

The loudest day/night for fireworks was Wednesday night going into Thursday morning, and then again Thurday, which is the 5th day. By Saturday, it was raining and the fireworks were gone, except for the red paper that we could see when we went out for lunch, the remnants of the firecrackers from yesterday.

I just admit, we did get alot of things done this week! We booked our flights and hotel for a week-long trip to Paris (Susan has a customer visit, and Tom is going to go along so we can visit some old friends there) as well as our next "weekend in Asia" trip which will be in April to Seoul, South Korea. Next Week's blog starts our trip to Bangkok!