Is that really a post with Will Ferrell dressed as an elf? Is that seriously the last thing I’ve posted. Guess so. Now it’s February and this is the first post of the new year.
I did a demo of wordpress for one of the Senior VPs at work today and it got me re-excited about blogging again.
When I lived in taiwan, this was the time of year for vacation. I really liked that. I took two paid weeks in the middle of Febrary when i worked in a school in taiwan. I remember talking with my scooter mechanic one night. I couldn’t understand him all that well, not just because my mandarin is hen lan. (lame) but because of the air generator whirring in the background. From what I could tell we were talking about the upcoming new year xin(new) nian(year) and that that was the only time each year he’d turn the generator off. Those guys worked 7 days per week. they worked all the time. they worked really slowly, but they never really had time off. Except this week, when they take the whole week off. Shut the power off on all the tools and everything.
(His mechanic shop was a three story house, the bottom floor his shop, the other two floors his house with his family.)
I’m sure he’s out celebrating, doing bai bai where they put out fruit and burn incense and paper money. I loved seeing the chinese honor their ancestors. It’s not as solemn as it sounds in school. Filial Piety isn’t what they called it. For example, If they were remembering relatives who liked to gamble, or had a lot of debt, they’d burn more money. If they liked to drink, they’d put out beers with the fruit. (It’s so different from my beach life in San Diego.)
Xin Nian was a time for fireworks. I’m sure there’s firecrackers. Oh the fireworks. Chinese people use fireworks for everything. They use them to celebrate, but that includes celebrating at church, when campaigning for politician, during parades as you run around (which was really cool). There’s even a special holiday where in one city you can run through a seciton where they’re firing firecrackers off into the crowd. I should dig up some pictures of that.
Fireworks at church was funny. I could only imagine lighting off M-80’s at a lutheran potluck some Sunday after church. I know how they liked it, I lived next to a temple. Early sun mornings.. fireworks.
So to celebrate blogging again, to celebrate the new year, and the rest of the month when i won’t be working 60 hours between three projects, and to celebrate word press, I’m changing my theme. xin nian kaui le. Gong Xi Fa Cai!
