Chinese New Year

Hong Kong is preparing itself for the biggest holiday celebration of the year, the Chinese New Year. The Chinese New Year festival traditionally begins on the first day of the first month of the Chinese lunar calendar (February 3^rd) and ends on the 15^th day with the Lantern Festival. Wherever you look you can see signs of the upcoming festival with buildings brightly decorated in red and gold and shops even more busy than usual as the locals pour out their money to buy presents, decorations and food for the New Year’s festivities. Products in the shape of rabbits can also be seen everywhere as the Chinese New Year welcomes the Year of the Rabbit.

Shops around town are selling red and gold decorations

 

   

New Year's decorations in our mall



The story behind Chinese New Year is that a monster lived near a village and would attack the village on New Year’s Eve to eat the livestock, crops and even villagers. To keep the monster away red paper was pasted on doors, torches were lit and firecrackers set off as it was believed that the monster fears the colour red, the light of fire and loud noises. These three traditions remain key features of the current Chinese New Year.  

The Chinese New Year also witnesses the world’s largest human migration with migrant Chinese travelling home to spend Chinese New Year with their families. In 2010 an estimated 210 million Chinese hit the planes, buses and trains – the equivalent to the whole population of Brazil packing their suitcases. In China, where much of the migration takes place, it’s been claimed that trains are so overcrowded that people wear diapers for their +24hr journeys home. (Source: http://gohongkong.about.com/od/chinesenewyear/a/Chinese-New-Year-Facts.htm)

Some interesting facts about Chinese New Year:

• Almost all of the New Years decorations are red because the colour red ties closely to wealth and good luck in Chinese culture.
• The most important day of Chinese New Year is Chinese New Year’s eve and the first day of Chinese New Year. Shops will close for these two days although some will stay closed for up to 8-10 days. 
• On the days before the New Year celebrations Chinese families give their home a thorough cleaning to sweep away any ill-fortune in hope to make way for good incoming luck. Cleaning products are then put away on New Year’s Eve so that the newly arrived good luck cannot be swept away.
• It's estimated that a sixth of the world celebrate Chinese New Year, including more than 1 billion Chinese citizens.
• Mandarins are considered traditional symbols of abundance and good fortune and are therefore displayed as decorations and presented as gifts to friends and relatives. 
  

I'll be visiting some of the New Year's celebrations so I'll make sure to post some pictures of the festivities later this week.

Sun nien fai lok (Happy New Year)!





Who said men can't multitask?

I'd like to share a short video that I came across the other day. While on his way to work in a mini bus Hong Kong journalist Nuri Vittachi filmed the driver steering through Hong Kong while reading the paper, eating his breakfast and taking regular phone calls. As Nuri comments: who said men can't multi-task? Well, Hong Kong bus drivers certainly can.



For more entertaining stories check out Mr Vittachi's blog.

That's it for today but I'll be back soon with more stories.

Anna

Battling Hong Kong's Big Chill

Hi everyone and welcome back to my first blog article of 2011!

Last week I got back to Hong Kong after spending the Christmas holidays with my family in The Netherlands. As this is my first winter here in Hong Kong I wasn’t too sure what to expect weatherwise. It turns out that it actually gets pretty chilly here with temperatures going down to around 10-15 degrees. This isn’t necessarily that cold but it is when you don’t have any indoor heating, so I’ve now become best friends with my warm slippers and hot water bottle.

Today the temperature was around 15 degrees and while it was a bit chilly I would hardly describe today's weather as extremly cold. The Hong Kong government disagrees. As soon as the temperature drops below 15 degrees the Hong Kong weather authority will issue an extreme cold weather warning (see below).

Bulletin issued at 20:02 HKT 09/Jan/2011

At 8 p.m. at the Hong Kong Observatory the air temperature was 15 degrees Celsius and the relative humidity 53 per cent.

Please be reminded that:
The Cold Weather Warning is now in force. Cold weather might cause adverse health effects. Members of the public should take care to keep warm.

(source: http://www.hko.gov.hk/wxinfo/currwx/current.htm)

To help local residents deal the cold, the government even provides some guidelines on actions to be taken for cold weather:

1. Members of the public are advised to put on warm clothes and to avoid adverse health effects due to the cold weather. 
2. Make sure there is adequate indoor ventilation.
3. If you must go out, avoid prolonged exposure to wintry winds.
4. If you know of elderly or persons with chronic medical conditions staying alone, call or visit them occasionally to check if they need any assistance.
5. Make sure heaters are safe before use, and place them away from any combustibles. Do not light fires indoors as a means to keep warm.
6. Whatever the temperature, ensure that there is plenty of fresh air in your room when you are using an old-type gas water heater. 

(Source: http://www.hko.gov.hk/wservice/warning/coldhot.htm)

Good thing it doesn't freeze here in Hong Kong...

See you soon!

Annelotte