It’s the 17th day of the first lunar mother today and we officially ended the spring festival celebration the day before last when we finished the Lantern festival.
The first thing we did on the first day of the New Year is to give out “red-packets”, my eleven- years old daughter woke us up in the early morning, then say “happy new year” and offered new year blessings to us, my wife and me gave her two red-packets, each one is 200yuan. Then she smiled sweetly and said
“Thank you, Dad and Mon.and guess what? I gave my grandpa and grandma each one a 10yuan red-packet”.
“oh, baby. how nice of you have done so, who told you to do that? Children don’t have to give red-packets to adult actually, you know”. Her mother said.
“I know, I know, but the problem is if I give them red-packets, they will be happier, then they must give me much more money than the one they were supposed to give as red-packet, right? finally, they gave me two red-packets, 1000yuan all together”. My daughter answered.
“ha ha, you are as sharp as a needle” we laughed.
My parents gave us red-packets as well, although we are adult, in their eyes we are children, lol. The weather was nice and it’s getting warmer, although it was windy and rainy on the New year’s Eve. The second thing we did is to pray to Buddha in the temple. After setting the firecracker off in front our door,. I drove to Dongshan temple with my family, then we burnt the incenses and kowtowed to the Buddha to pray for blessings, we hoped that our family are healthy and successful and all the best in the New year. Got back from the temple we had breakfast then all my family walked the street for fun, there were a number of people walking in the streets including men and women, teenagers, elder and children. they talked, laughed and did new year greeting if they know each other. Some streets are really packed especially in some downtowns of Hepu like Huanzhu square and the mermaid and so forth, because lots of people and vehicles are from different towns of Hepu, they got together in the county center to celebrate the spring festival on the first day. In this case, it’s impossible to avoid traffic jams in some traffic bottlenecks, so the traffic policemen had to work overtime to solve the problems and keep the traffic in order. My daughter and her friends put on performances in the New year celebration party which was held by the county government of Hepu at Huanzhu square in the morning. We watched the party happily and the party was exciting, their dances were really awesome. We were supposed to prepare for some red-packets to give the kids of our relatives or good friends in case of meeting them in the streets and they say “happy new year” to us according to the Chinese new year traditional custom, each red-packet could be 50yuan, 100yuan or it could be 200yuan if you are richer and more generous, it depends. Generally speaking, no mater how much is the red-packet, more or less, it stand for the good lucks in the New year anyway. You can find dragon dance or lion dance for entertaining people somewhere in the streets, giving red-packets to those dancers and setting off the firecracker to welcome them is a must for this kind of activity. There were other entertainment activities at the square like solving riddles, handwriting exhibition, Kungfu performance. If you are basketball fans you can go watching the basketball game at the Stadium. All of the super markets were packed as well, but I don’t think it’s a good idea for shopping in such a busy day, only for window shopping, it’s ok. Wherever you go, it’s full of happiness and celebration in the streets. At night, we set off the firework in our neighborhood with a bunch of children, the fireworks were wonderful which made all the children laughed and cheered.
On the second day and the fourth day of the spring festival we paid New year visit to the homes of my uncle who lives in the countryside of Changle town and my in-laws who live in the countryside of Xichang town of Hepu county. As the new year gifts, we brought some chicken, fishes, peanut oil, candies and cookies for them as well as some fruit such as apples ,oranges and grapefruits according to the local traditional custom. Then we almost did the same things in these two places, for example giving red-packets to all the children of my relatives and of course they returned another one to my kid as well. in another word, we exchanged money each other for the children and it doesn’t make any sense, I think. But it’s one of the Chinese New year traditions, so we have to follow it anyway. I asked one of my American friends James who visited me the week before the spring festival about this tradition. He told me that people don’t give out money as red-packets in the New year or other festivals in the United States, instead they would like to send gifts to the children or their family. there were a lot of foods for eating and drinking such as chicken, duck, fishes, fried squid, shrimp, spring rolls, clam , vegetable and so forth. All my relatives had a nice meal, they were so happy and drank too much but I didn’t drink any alcohol for I had to take the steering wheel. drunk driving is forbidden, you know, and it has broken the criminal law of China, maybe the policeman will take you and put you in jail if possible, Anyway it’s not nice thing to have a try. After a whole day trip, we were exhausted but we were very happy because we had finished the most important things “pay new year visit” which we were used to do during every spring festival.
It became more chilly on the followed couple of days and it rained all day long, so I preferred staying at home to going outside for fun. I drank tea and enjoyed the refreshment like candies and cookies or fruits which we bought for the New year with my family. Most of time, I watched the New year celebration party on the TV or surfed the internet. Most of people would like to do gambling by playing the poker or mahjong here in Hepu county during the festivals. No matter male or female, old people or young people, they enjoy gambling, my wife is one of them, I can say. I think that gamble is a very bad habit, is not nice thing to do, even though this kind of activity is against the law. Small gamble for entertainment is ok, but never get addicted to it. big gamble like playing mahjong around the clock, either win ten thousand yuan or lose tens of thousands yuan each day, that will be harmful to your wealth and health or the society, more seriously it can destroy your family if you do that as your occupation, so don’t be a gamble junkie anyway. like something we did the other day, many relatives paid New year visit to my home as well, needless to say there were lots of eating and drinking again. Most of people ate too much than usual during the spring festival, I think. also the weather was so bad, in this case they did seldom outdoor sports compare to before, therefore they have gained some weight for sure. That’s not good for someone’s health and image, I think. So in my opinion, we should try our best to catch up on sports in order to keep fit as soon as the weather turn out fine.
We started working on the eighth day after finished the long 7days holiday according to the government. But to tell the truth, our work wasn’t back to normal yet until the lantern festival, because we normally work outside in the streets or on the road to enforce the law instead of working in the offices. anyway we can take rest in case of the rainy weather .
