February 14 combined Valentine's Day with the first day of the Chinese New Year (CNY). This was viewed as a very auspicious occasion around here, although that might just have been the commercial interests, trying to persuade us of its importance. I did not see much evidence of Valentine's day - there were a few hearts to be found in the street decorations and the fireworks, but there was no missing the Chinese New Year of the Tiger.
Kung Hei Fat Choi is the standard CNY greeting. Best wishes and prosperity. CNY is mostly a family affair, which of course did not involve us. People travel to see their parents and grandparents. The train stations in China got even more crowded as this is one time when you feel that you really have to go. I think this is a few levels beyond the US Thanksgiving obligations. The schools are closed for a week here, although I am expected back at work on Wednesday, so the weekend plus 2 days for me. We followed our normal practice of experiencing everything that we could.
One of the nicest parts is all the flowers. There are lots of flower markets set up several days before hand. One of the biggest is in Victoria Park and so that is where we went. The flowers were gorgeous - lots of gladioli and chrysanthemums and then more specifically Chinese variants - peach and plum blossoms and then small or not so small tangerine (or related citrus) trees. They also have small daffodils that you want to buy closed so that they will open on New Years Day and bring you the most luck. There were many, many flower vendors doing a good trade, but then there were even more stalls selling all manner of junk. HK is the capital of junk and of commercialism and it was out in full force. Tigers made out of everything to fit all parts of your body and to perform all functions. Lots of fair food, some familiar and some not so.
Actually, I have to say, for me CNY food has been something of a disappointment. They have these rice flour cakes, flavored with brown sugar or turnips or carrots. They are extremely gelatinous and not very sweet - in fact sometimes they are savory, with added fish or bacon flavorings. You buy them as circular cakes, slice them, dip them in egg and fry them. Given the numbers of them sold, they must be very popular here, but all I can say is, there is a good reason that most cultures in the world bake with flour made from wheat rather than rice.
Putting aside baking, the Chinese certainly know how to throw a parade. The HK New Year Parade was one of the best I have ever seen. It was certainly the most international. There were fireman gymnasts from France (performing in their fire-fighting gear), flag throwers from Italy, stilt walkers (some ridiculously high) from Belgium, steel drums and puppets from the Notting Hill Carnival, Russian dancers, US cheerleaders (yes, that was a little disappointing) and then, of course participants from all over Asia. Lion dancers and dragon dancers, and dancers of many other kinds, lots of bands, and big commercial floats of varying degrees of creativity. More than 100,000 people come out to watch it so we had to get there early and wait almost 2 hours for the parade to get to us. Actually, it was the first parade that I have ever been to where there was a pre-parade - a Scottish/Hong Kong bagpipe band did a couple of circuits to keep us entertained while waiting.
That was the evening of the first day of the CNY and then the second evening was the fireworks. There have been a few other firework opportunities here, but we have never really seen them at their best. This time we (well at least Jacob and Duncan and I) decided we were going to do whatever it took, so we got ourselves down to the best viewing area, the Avenue of the Stars on the waterfront, about 2.5 hours before they started. We took our first waiting position in a convenient Starbucks (must have one of the best views of all Starbucks). We went and took up position opposite the firework barges with about 1.25 h to go, and the time went pretty fast as we shared stories of our youth. The fireworks were very impressive. They seem to specialize in pictoral displays. So along with the valentine hearts, we had lots of tiger faces, smiley faces, 8s (very lucky) and Chinese characters. We were close enough so we could feel the explosions as well as see and hear them.
We also had a couple of other good close up CNY experiences. Some friends told us that a lion dance company were going to perform in the lobby of a nearby hotel on the morning of CNY Day. They were spectacular - 2 men to a lion, jumping all over the lobby. And then the Notting Hill Carnival group came and performed alongside our Whampoa ship on Tuesday. They were quite foreign in the local context, black-skinned people playing steel drums with great exuberance. Nicely familiar for me, though. And at the end a couple of band members came to greet me because they noticed my Arsenal scarf and wanted to say hi to a fellow supporter.
One other interesting custom is the giving of red packets, small envelopes containing just a little money. Most of the ones I have given contain HK$20 (about 3 US bucks). They go to friends who are younger than you and unmarried and to people that perform services for you, e.g. the security guards and janitors in our apartment complex. The $$ amount is less important than the well wishes and the associated good fortune for the coming year.