Chinese New Year

So this year Chinese New Year landed on Valentines day...and out of the two celebrations I think the Chinese New Year won! It is the year of the Tiger and apparently Australia celebrates Chinese New Year more than any other country outside of Asia. On New Years Eve we went down to Darling harbor and went through the Chinese Tea Gardens. They were magnificent and so peaceful even though they were positioned in the middle of the city, the trees really made you feel secluded.

I learned a lot about Chinese new year. For instance, it is a time to visit family and call relatives. The new year has to do with the lunar calendar so it landed on Feb 14th because that is the day of the new moon. The celebration lasts for a while (2 weeks?) until the moon has gone down some. On New Years Day the children will get dressed, eat and then come and bow before their parents. Their parents will give them advice for the upcoming year and then give them a "red envelope" this has money in it. Olivia has a bunch of friends who actively celebrate this and follow these traditions and she told me (New Years Eve) while I was washing the dishes how excited she was for her red envelope...I looked through my house and realized I only had white ones! Stan said he would still give her some advice if she wanted :-) Next week we are watching the dragon boat races and going to the Chinese twilight parade...and will see all the fireworks set off, it should be cool! Plus my neighbor is taking me into China town to eat Yum-cha (I don't have a clue how to spell it, but that is what it sounds like).

It was so easy to forget that it was also Valentines day. The schools do not do any activities for Valentines day and the stores don't really hype it up. Stan still pulled out all the tricks by ordering me flowers and chocolates! Thanks Stan!