Eng. Page Column 2005-03-06, Chinese New Year.htm

2005 March 6^th	Translation: ,
CHINESE NEW YEAR	Gerda van Petersen - Wisconsin, USA

Chinese New Year started this year on February 9^th, it is the year of the Rooster. Similar to the Dutch New Years Eve, February 8^th is New Years Eve in China and this is, just as in Holland, celebrated with big New Years Eve parties and fireworks at night (which is actually prohibited in the City but none of the Chinese seem to be concerned about these little rules) and champagne for those who can afford it.

Vacation started for “everybody” on Sunday February 6^th. The first few days everything was indeed closed but then some stores opened up again. But it was remarkable that around 6 or 7 PM everything was closed. This causes the streets to look surreal, in a city which normally looks very vibrant at night. One visits each other, visits a park or theater, goes out to dinner with friends or family and, like us, goes to a theme park/fair.

First though, we went to the opening ceremony of the New Year on Sunday February 6^th.

At the entrance of the Wuhou temple an enormous stage was build including a light and sound installation. Here, at 8 PM, small hot air balloons with slogans were released by city officials. The whole ceremony took exactly a half hour.

People had made replica’s of antique hot air balloons, about one and a half meter (about 5 feet) tall. The balloons were round, white, paper cylinders with on the bottom a flat, fragile, construction of threads on which a fire could burn. These were officially lighted by the gentlemen and released. The hot air did the rest. The funny part is that this worked perfectly. After the city leaders did their part, hundreds more of these balloons were released from a location among the temple buildings. This was a spectacular sight against the dark sky. To bad it didn’t show up on the photographs.

And then a few days later there was the fair. This also was an experience. A crowd of people staring at primitive depictions of traditional images. This all with moving, glittering and flashing colored lights. The images were made of colored plastic, mounted on thin metal wires.

Oh yeah, there were about 5 attractions but these were about 40 years old. For the rest there were of course food-, drink- and candy stands, an enormous amount of them. Vendors with lighted trinkets, vendors with a whole kitchen on the back of their bike (this was functioning as a food stand), vendors with ….. you name it, it was there. I think the pictures speak for themselves.

The city was decorated less than I would have thought. There were some stores with a lot of lanterns but in this city it seems to be more indoors.