Kung Hei Fat Choi!

It's Chinese New Year time. Monday Jan 26, 2009 marked the start of the Year of the Ox. Chinese New Year is the absolute biggest holiday season in Hong Kong. It's a bigger deal for many Chinese than Christmas and the traditional new year. Bigger in that these are the days when the streets of Hong Kong are the quietests, with most businesses shut down. Even those that may have stayed open on Christmas are closed for Chinese New Year.

It has become a tradition for Hong Kong to hold an annual parade on the first night of the Chinese New Year, and a huge fireworks show on the 2nd night.

CHINESE NEW YEAR PARADE

My friend Andrea and I went across the harbor to Tsim Sha Tsui to watch the parade on Monday night. We rode the Star Ferry over at about 8:05 pm which was perfect because every night at 8 pm is when many of the buildings have a light show.

We arrived at TST, pretty much at the site of the start of the parade. The streets were jam packed! However, it didn't sound quite noisy like the sound of the parade, so Andrea and I debated if this thing was starting at 8 or 8:30 pm. I told her I know it started at 8 pm...yet strange it was kinda of quiet, despite the crowds.

Finally, over the heads of many others, we could see a little of a pretty float passing by. Then, nothing. My sense of direction in TST was a little confused, and I could have sworn the parade was supposed to be going in the opposite direction. We walked to one side of the crowd, thinking there must be an escape to where the crowd thins out for better viewing. But, we realized we went the wrong way. So we went the other way, following the few floats passing by, but the crowd got thicker and thicker and we were pushing our way through. Then an irritating girl who was probably drunk, kept pushing Andrea and calling out as if she was creating her on horn-like sounds, since there were not many parade sounds passing by.

After 10 minutes, we came to a "subway", which is an underground tunnel to travel under a busy street to another side, and either had to go down the tunnel, or make a decision to make this our spot to view the parade. So, we stopped there. Andrea is a bit taller than me and could see better than I could. I held up my new video camera that David gave to me as a belated Christmas present and could see more in the viewer than I could in reality.

A local Hong Kong friend of mine had warned me not to expect too much out of the parade. He said, it's not like in Brazil. OK, that's fine, I don't need the carnavale. I just figure, this is Hong Kong, it will probably be glitzier than our good 'ole Maui County Parades. However, he was right. This parade was something of a disappointment. Maybe if we had arrived way earlier we would have a good viewing spot and I would have seen a lot more. Sometimes there weren't floats, just kids passing by, which I definitely could not see over the heads of people. But, what was most strange was that, sometimes, one, two or at the most, three "groups" in the parade would pass by, and then there would be a pause for a few minutes. Then another float, then a long pause.

So, I took footage on my video camera and I am still learning it and hope to do a little editing job that will make it seem like the parade was a great free flow of floats and marchers. If I can figure that out, I will post some kind of link to the video here.

After the parade we ate at a Japanese dessert place. (I can't get this sundae to rotate!)

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Finally, after that, we were walking back to the ferry and I got some of my best pics of the lion dancers as they were walking back to put away their decorations. The cute boys were really hamming it up and still smiling as they held the dragon, even though the parade was done, and I got some nice shots.

DAY 2 OF CHINESE NEW YEAR

I decided not to watch the fireworks this year as I had quite a fill of fireworks at last year's Chinese New Year as well as Chinese National Day. Instead I watched some Hong Kong movies. There are these fantastic movies by the Shaw Brothers that show on a particular channel here. They've made between 700 to 1000 movies, many in the '70s and '80s. I've only seen a handful of them so far, as I only started giving that channel a chance, but I saw some really great ones that were all from the '70s. Quite entertaining!

LAI SEE

Oh, before I forget, one of the major aspects of Chinese New Year is the passing out of Lai See. These are the red packets filled with a crisp, new as you can get bill, either usually either HK $20, $50 or $100, depending on whom you are giving to. There's a whole set of rules related to this. Generally senior gives to junior. So, if you are a boss, you give to anyone who works for you. Or, anyone of a lower status than you in the company. If you are married, you give to singles. Also it seems tenants are expected to give something to the staff at their building, such as concierge, doorman, security, cleaning persons, etc. I literally read numerous articles and discussions online to try to comprehend this. Today I gathered some of the envelopes and headed downstairs to my reception area, which is often staffed with four workers! Indeed there were four guys, many who have been a great help in calling taxis for me or in arranging for repairs to my unit. I said "Kung Hei Fat Choi," and gave them each a red envelope decorated in gold writing . They were pleased. I also gave some to the guy at the guard shack and the guy at the taxi stand out front as I always pass them when I go out to run. I also gave one to the groundskeeper/gardener. Tonight when I go out to the movies, I will expect to give out 3 more to some of the night crew that I typically see at the front desk.