The beginning of Chinese New Year was yesterday, and this is celebrated as a three day holiday. I was told shops would be closing and things would get quiet, but I was little prepared for the degree to which this occured. There were blocks of shuttered gated store fronts, as families prepared for the celebrations, gathering at home, often leaving town to go to ancestoral villages to be with extended families. Almost everyone here is a little Chinese, or at least celebrates as if they were. The hospital had no patients in the emergency room at the beginning of the day, and many patients were discharged, to go home. It was so quiet that I left early, as there were almost no studies performed for the entire day, even the CT scanner broke for the occasion. This gave us the opportunity to walk around observing the presentations of street side displays of food to welcome in the New Year.
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| A brisk business at the flower market |
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| From very simple to more elaborate displays on the sidewalk |
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| Tuk tuk driver waiting for business |
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| Not really tempted |
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| Some had to work no matter what |
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| Children learning "high rise" construction |
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| Me and the ultrasound tech Roth on my right, and Vipol the Radiologist trainee |
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| Sothea on my left came from afar to learn |
The food displays are to welcome in the new year? Does the food get eaten? I loved the colorful mats the food was displayed on.
ReplyDeleteThe food is eaten. I found the following about some of the customs.
DeleteThe Chinese New Year & The Color Red
By evad // January 26, 20095 comments
As it is the first day of the Chinese lunar new year I thought we would take a look at a little history of the celebration and why the color red is so important. So, let us wish everyone a happy 'Chinese year' of 4707, 4706, or 4646. We hope much luck will come in this year of the Ox.
According to tales and legends, the beginning of Chinese New Year started with the fight against a mythical beast called the Nian or "Year" in Chinese. Nian would come on the first day of New Year to devour livestock, crops, and even villagers, especially children. To protect themselves, the villagers would put food in front of their doors at the beginning of every year and believed that after the Nian ate the food they prepared, it wouldn’t attack any more people. Once, people saw the Nian was scared away by a little child wearing red, they then understood that the Nian was afraid of the color red. Hence, every time when New Year was about to come, the villagers would hang red lanterns and spring scroll on windows and doors. People also used firecrackers to frighten the Nian and from then on, the Nian never came to the village again and was eventually converted by Hongjunlaozu, a Taoist in the old time, and became his mount.