Chinese New Year is approaching and city is decorated with Red lanterns and tiger shaped designs. Malls are super crowded, people are flocking to every shop and every mall to buy gifts for families and for themselves. All the SALE signs now have been updated to FINAL SALE signs. People at work are busy planning for their vacations for a week long holiday. Some have already taken extended holiday and things are starting to slow down. People have already got their fatter pay check in Dec and January ( love the 14 month pay system instead of 12 months) and there are no inhibitions against confident spending. I love the way culture and economics play along with each other. Now, this scene is no different than the scene you would see in weeks approaching Christmas in US and other Western countries or Diwali in India. Everybody goes shopping and trips when the vacation approaches in any part of the well-to-do world. This isn’t as exciting to me so I have to deep digger and discover more of the local customs and celebrations that differentiates Chinese New year from Christmas.
So I start talking to my peers weeks before CNY and start to get my scoop on real Chinese New Year celebrations. The preparation for CNY will start few weeks before the actual day. It starts with the cleansing custom. House is thouroughly washed and cleaned to get rid of ill-fortune so that it makes space for the good fortune in the coming year. I learn from my peers that on Saturday he and his wife had cleansed his parents house on Sunday they cleansed his wife’s parents house and then following weekend they will clean their own house. This was very common in Taipei and it is considered their duty to clean houses of their old parent’s house. But many times parents live in smaller towns away from the city and in this case their children will make arrangements to get their house cleansed. Now, I do have to say that cleansing custom is also widely prevalent in India before the Diwali times. I remember as a kid we used to help parents every single corner of the house and in exchange we used to get lot of Diwali treats at the end of the day. After the cleaning is completed, they will also paint doors and windows with RED color and put lanterns and paper cut outs on the door saying things like “fortune”, “wealth” and “Longevity”. Oh, so similar to the “Shubh”.”Labh” stickers or cut-outs that we used to put on the doors and colourful designs that we used to paint on the floor right outside our door (Rangoli) to welcome good luck and fortune in our homes in India.
Coming back to CNY day, it’s the day to earn lot of money. People will travel and visit relatives who are eldest in the family and extended family usually parents, grand-parents. Red packets ( envelopes filled with money) are exchanged on this day. Children will receive these red pockets from elders in the family but once children starts earning they will start giving red pockets to their parents instead of receiving from their parents. I think this makes so much sense and it is so practical. Even at workplace all employees receive Red Packets from their employers but bigger companies like us now directly deposit money in your salary account. All the family members will have a grand meal together and enjoy some family entertainment. In earlier days, there will be holiday food prepared at home but these days atleast in Taipei they have chosen a shortcut of ordering food from outside or going out to eat. All the restaurants and hotels are now advertising their CNY family style menu for in-restaurant or take-outs. Reminds me of Thanksgiving meals that people order from outside in US. Afer dinner and entertainment, kids and family members will watch the fire crackers. Taipei city has a dedicated Fire-cracker show put up for the occasion.
On the second day of CNY, married women must visit her parents house. They say that uou cannot go on the CNY day itself as it is considered a bad omen. I did not get a good explaination for what happens if you do that. My guess is that in olden days families lived far apart and it was not practical to visit two sets of familes boy side and girl side on the same day. My peers have warned me to not be too ambitious and travel or drive on that day as I will 100% get stuck in traffic and the whole country or Chinese community in the world will travel to get blessings from the girl’s parents.
This festivities will go on for 15 days and on the last day also called pinyin, families will lit lanterns outside their houses to help wayward spirits find their way home. Other custom very prevalent in Taiwan is to fire the lantern and let it rise up in the air. Messages and wishes are written on these lanterns so that God can read their wishes and help them out of their worries. Thousands of lanterns rise in the air on this day giving it a magical look, I definitely plan to visit the pinyin area and witness this marvellous site myself.
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