Chinese New Year - Part One: Preparations

 

The air is filled with holiday magic.  Chinese Lunar New Year requires days of preparation which include cleaning, decorating, cooking, and buying new clothes.  The current shopping frenzy provides a delightful view for us.   We can only deduct that Chinese New Year is similar to our Christmas celebration.  I’ll share what we see now and add the actual celebration at a later date.

Visiting the open markets before Chinese New Year was sheer delight.  Several small shops are dedicated to New Year merchandise.

The brilliant reds and golds show through to create a festive feeling, even on this rainy day in the outdoor market.

                     Every type of hanging décor imaginable can be found in these specialty shops.

Need new pillows?  Sprucing up the home is part of preparing for the lunar New Year.  Our legal secretary took a day of personal leave to clean her house.  This tradition parallels our pattern of spring cleaning.  She reminded us of this tradition as cleaning out the old and preparing for the new.  She told us how hard she worked to finish the task in one day, no vacation time for Jennifer.

                                        Children receive new clothes for the holiday.

                            I was tempted to buy some beautiful clothes for my grandchildren.

The old Peninsula Hotel is my favorite.  The lanterns are particularly beautiful glowing in the dark of night.

                                I like this shot looking upward at the lantern display.

The Area Presidency gave all employees and missionaries these beautiful bags with a box of nougat candies and beef jerky (it is the year of the ox).   Apparently, the word “nougat” sounds much like the word “ox” in Chinese.  Clever!

Most business doorways are adorned with these tiny orange trees.   The oranges taste bitter.  What a waste.  Note the traditional red envelopes hanging from the branches.  They contain a small money bill given as a token of appreciation.

This BMW dealership decorated with the traditional two orange trees outside the door.  Notice the larger oranges, more of a mandarin type.  No one would dare pick them – again, what a waste.

                                                     Our lobby displays traditional lanterns.

Rick stand in front of the pink-blossomed tree loaded with money envelopes (which are probably empty and only for display).

We visited the flower show in Victoria Park.  It was a smaller version of the usual event but everything was splendid.  Flowers are an important part of the holiday.  I adore this segment of celebrating the New Year.  We’ve watched people carry large armloads of various floral types and arrangements.  I’ll share only a few of the beauties we saw at the show.

Remember the doorways adorned with orange trees?  This little girl chooses one that is more her size.  Many homes use the smaller version as a symbol of good luck.

I assume these are kumquats?  They have formed small “bushes” and larger “trees” from this fruit.  They are even more festive when twigs of bright red berries are added to the arrangement.

                    Pussy willows!!  The lovely limbs were dyed in every bright color imaginable. 

                                                                       ORCHIDS!!!!

I could never include all the colors and varieties of orchids we’ve seen.  This represents a small sampling of the loose blooms for sale.

                              Bright baubles add to the arrangements of lovely flowers.

This represents a common display on many tables and office desks.  Orchids combined with the symbolic new year tassels in mostly red and gold with additional fetishes attached.

My red envelopes are prepared.  Only new money is placed inside.  $20 HKD is about $2.50 is USD.  We will give these to our employee’s children and any other young people or single employees.  It’s almost like combining Christmas and Halloween into one holiday.

Cuisine plays an important part in any celebration.  The fruit varieties have tempted us daily.  Cherries, most likely from Australia, fill the markets and prices are reasonable.

                           The Chinese would never celebrate without some type of “choy”.

I don’t know anything about this fruit.  However, I do believe I’ve seen it in one of our temple films.

                                         Turnips and radishes – yes, they are this big.

Bernard, an employee from the finance department, brought this radish pie his mother made for us.  I don’t know all the ingredients but it is very heavy and we’ve identified shredded radish, rice flour, dried shrimp, and a few unknown items.  Bernard suggested we steam of fry it.  We appreciate his kind thoughtfulness.  It’s joyful to learn of the local traditions and cuisine.  

We’ve tried frying and steaming the radish pie.  I’ve also cooked it in sweet and sour sauce.  The possibilities are endless for the interesting taste and texture of this local treat.

We can’t explain the pink cat décor at North Point.  In the year of the ox we’re uncertain of the part the cat plays.  But, we couldn’t resist a photo to share.  Any meaning we are missing here??