The New Year in Hong Kong

The time has come where millions of Chinese take to the trains make the annual trek to their 老家, their hometown and ancestral homeland, and reunite with family members for a time of feasting and celebration. In keeping with this tradition, I have come to my 老家, Hong Kong, to celebrate with my relatives. The celebration of the lunar new year in China, roughly speaking, is equivalent to Christmas in America. However, instead of having explicitly religious origins, Spring Festival has roots in this traditionally agricultural society, where the lunar new year and the coming spring mark the beginning of a new season of planting and growth and a renewal of life all around.

Though many in the U.S. have images of lion dances and dragon parades in the streets, these are essentially Chinese-American creations. The tradition within China is to reunite with family and have a big feast. Friends in Beijing have told me that, when they were young and their families were poor, Spring Festival was the only occasion to eat meat.

Spring Festival is also the occasion for firecrackers. The Chinese, of course, invented firecrackers (and gunpowder), and the evidence is plain to see (and hear) during this time of year. Beijing feels like a war zone: not only are the streets relatively deserted but also deafening explosions can occur, without warning, around every street corner, and remnants of smoke hang in the air long afterwards. I have realized that I can only take so much of this and am happy to report that Hong Kong so far seems more regulated.

As I left to catch my plane to Hong Kong, my housemates sent me off somewhat ceremoniously by lighting a long string of fireworks. Imagine a machine gun shooting a round of bullets 200 times, and then amplify the volume fourfold, and you can begin to imagine this particular firecracker. I guess they do serve their supposed function of scaring evil spirits away; if I were an evil spirit, I would certainly find another place to go.

(I lost my camera on the train back to Beijing, so, sadly, most of the photos I took on this trip I cannot share.)