Another New Year

“After the peaceful Year of the Rabbit, 2012 will feel like its bursting with energy and the spirit of the dragon will make everything seem larger- than-life. The year will be an ambitious and daring one.”

– quote from a Hong Kong Feng Shui master

Welcome to the Year of the Dragon!  The Dragon was ushered in two weeks ago during Chinese New Year (CNY).  According to the Chinese, this is one of the most powerful and important of the zodiac signs. 

Immediately after the Christmas holiday, local people work feverishly to decorate for CNY.  Our building’s lobby is hardly swept of pine needles (they try hard to make it look Christmas-y for us, even getting real trees) when the bright red Chinese lanterns come out.  People decorate their homes with things like miniature orange trees and chrysanthemums and put red banners on their doors.

We decided to be brave and make a trek to Victoria Park in Causeway Bay (designated by me as the busiest place on earth) to the New Year Flower Market.  It’s billed as the biggest flower market in Hong Kong and is a major local draw.  We arrived about 20 minutes after it opened and it was brimming with people.  It was a carnival-like atmosphere with all kinds of wares – useful and useless - being sold by people with loud speakers, games being played for prizes, and all kinds of food being peddled.   Unfortunately, the photos are on the camera that's traveling with Dave, but I found a few online that represent the kinds of great stuff we saw:

Photo by Zoe Li

I wondered, since the Euro is declining, if we should ask for a discount. 

Photo from simpledreamer.com

The plum blossom tree is a special here – because it blossoms early, it’s seen as bravely standing up to winter.  They are sold a bit like live Christmas trees: 

However, I’m not sure how the average family with a 400 square foot apartment fits one of these in their home.

This is an especially exciting year for Lydia's school, since their mascot is a dragon.  The Friday before the CNY break, they held a big celebration – complete with Chinese acrobats, a drum show, and traditional Chinese dance.  The day was made even more exciting since it was one of the few times during the year when kids can wear something other than the school uniform.  But if they didn't show up in uniform, they needed to be in traditional Chinese clothing.  Here’s Lydia in her new cheongsam (Chinese dress):

As for our own family's celebration, we did the same thing as the last couple of years – we got out of town!  This time we headed to Thailand and Burma.  Yes, Burma.  Why not?  It's the year of the (ambitious and daring) dragon, after all.

Xin nian kuai le! (Happy New Year)