So, it's one or two weeks after Christmas that the holiday spirit sets in here. The schools are all out around the first week in January. Brant's last day to teach is tomorrow (on a Sunday, of all days). The stores have many new year's items on sale - most of them red. Red is the color of the season! There's usually a big section of new underwear all in red, and I've heard that it's tradition to wear new red underwear on Chinese new year's day. This is also the time to find more traditional looking Chinese shirts. We've never bought any yet, but maybe we should this year. Some of them are really pretty. People also put up decorations in their homes - mostly red lights and lanterns. They also put up red papers on their doors. I'll have to make a separate entry about that one of these days soon. There is a Chinese character you see alot of too - it basically means "blessing". The attached picture is showing how people put this character on their doors - the character is upside-down. I can't remember the reason for that, but I'll figure it out and let you know in another post.
Another huge tradition is fireworks. You would not believe the noise on the new year's eve and even for some nights afterwards too. Eden has had a phobia of fireworks because she's been scared out of deep sleep a number of times to fireworks going off outside her window. We'll see how she does this year. Last year we had her sleep with us in our bed on the loudest night. We set up our computer so that we could watch a dvd right in bed, but it was hard to even hear the movie because of all the noise! We're not accustomed to having a kid in our bed though, so this year we're planning to put her on the couch cushions on the floor next to our bed. It should be interesting!
I just looked on a calendar and found out that next year's Chinese new year holiday is right on Valentine's day! This year it's on a Monday, January 26.
