Preparing for the Year of the Horse

Around the middle of January, all the Christmas decorations were replaced with Chinese New Year ones.  It's the year of the horse (starting January 31st) which is supposed to be an exceptionally fortunate year…nice to know :)

It was so interesting to be in the middle of Chinese New Year celebrations!  Given the fact that in Taiwan they decorate for Christmas--a foreign holiday they don't even really celebrate--try to imagine the scale that Chinese New Year is done up! It feels like the equivalent of Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's all rolled into one. Ryely's school was given a 3 week break.  Julien's school followed the work schedule holidays which only include 1/30-2/4, but we pulled him out at the same time as Ryley and took our family trip early in order to get back in time to not miss anything.

There are so many good luck and good fortune wishes associated with Chinese New Year. Prior to this year, the only one I knew was this one below: gong zi fa cai [May you have a prosperous New Year!]

From what I've noticed, you're supposed to clasp your hands and do a little bow towards the person you say it to. After giving this greeting (and in the same breath) kids will ask their family members for a red envelope [hong boa na lai] which will have the traditional gift of money inside of it. 

 The character below this dragon is the coolest thing: it is a compilation of several characters, written this certain way, which basically forms an entire idiom of ushering in wealth and prosperity at New Year time. 

 Tutor Amy had Ben and I practice Chinese calligraphy with trying to write this mega character. For some reason I can't find our pathetic efforts to include in a photo right now :) 

 Chinese lanterns are hanging everywhere…including our dining room.

 You also see a lot of Chinese knots like these.

 This is the character for "Spring" which is often hung upside-down to indicate that it has already come (the words for saying "it has already come" sound like "it's upside-down")

 We decided to decorate our apartment door with some really good Chinese poems which should ensure us a prosperous year to come. Most people leave their poems up all year long until they put new ones on in preparation for the next lunar year. I think we'll just use ours for awhile :) 

 At the market there are lots of decorations and flowers to buy. 

Explaining the "beckoning cat" (one of Ben's favorite Chinese New Year symbols)