MY FIRST CHINESE NEW YEAR IN CHINA

Well the festivities have come to a close so it's time to report.  Chinese New Year is definitely a serious celebration.  The week before a hint of what is to come is evidenced by the few and far between sounds of fireworks and other various explosives.  This of course gradually increased as it got closer to Chinese New Year Day.  Beijing also emptied out.  Practically everyone takes off and goes home.  Most businesses close and traffic is a dream.  I had an entire week off which was great.  I tried to begin my celebration with a fabulous massage but, my new favorite place was closed.  I shouldn't have been taken by surprise but it really kind of ticked me off.  Oh well.  I spent my first day off by following the tradition of cleaning my apartment.  I also did some grocery shopping and hit Yashow market because I wanted to buy a new red shirt to wear on New Years Day.  I found a really pretty blouse at the market but I still kind of suck at bargaining and ended up paying more than I should have for it (it was still much less than I was planning on spending so I felt okay about it but I do know better now for next time).  

New Years Eve I went to Ditan Temple with the Bensfields.  The temple grounds were pretty big - it's the biggest traditional temple in Beijing.  The outside had red lanterns and banneres galore hanging from above.  I was a bit disappointed with the Temple Fair itself. There was booth after booth of typical american carnival games and HUGE stuffed animals of various cartoon charcters and nonsense.  I was seriously amazed at the number of game booths and stuffed items there were.  A couple places had booth after booth of food and I enjoyed a lamb kabab thing that was really good.  I avoided the squid on a stick and I sampled some sesame candy stuff and some honey candy stuff that I ended up buying.  There were definitely some odd edible items but I liked the sweet potato and beet chips most of all I think. I regret not buying those.  We were hoping for some fabulous entertainment but all they had was some band with a girl singing Chinese pop music.  We saw some men dressed in traditional costume and if you paid them oney they would carry you in a traditional carriage sorts while music played.  That night we went to the home of Becca and Kent Morris from church.  I got to meet some other families there who were super amazing and nice.  We enjoyed a lot of food and set off a large amount of fireworks.  It was fabulous company and I really appreciated getting to know more people.  I headed home about 10:30 and snuggled up on my huge comfy sofa with my comforter and enjoyed the amazing view of all the fireworks when it hit midnight!  It was unreal the amount of explosives going off.  

I awoke to the very strong aroma of sulfur (the smell is still in the air a week later).   I spent CNY day meeting more friends from church at another Taoist temple.  It was much smaller and it had small rooms with statues of all the Taoist Gods and what the represented.  Each room had an altar in front for people to lay their burning sticks and pray for the blessings they wanted for the new year.  People also got to hang read wooden squares with tassals that had various pictures or symbols on them.  Their names were written on them and they were hung throughout the temple gates.  This temple fair had more of the traditional entertainment - a small dance troupe outside, acrobats inside, a little old man with a mouse that ran through some type of strange obstacle course, and a few other things.  The meat kababs were aplenty and there were vendors selling various items such as crafts and dead crickets.  After the fair we headed over to a family's apartment where we had a late brunch of sorts with crepes and pancakes.  It was another really good opportunity to meet people I can honestly say that I have met some of the kindest and most amazing people since coming to Beijing.  

The rest of my new years wasn't too eventful.  I slept in and continued to work on a project for Houston Grand Opera which I really need to get done.  I meant to get some other work done as well but didn't.  I had Sunday off for which I was sooooooo grateful!  I got to attend all of church and even invited a few new friends over for dinner which was good fun.  

I never really knew much about Chinese new year before or understood why it was such a huge celebration but I am a converted fan and I'd love to maintain some of the traditions and aspects of the celebration throughout my life.