Xīn Nián Kuài Lè! 新年快乐!

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Xin Nian Kuai Le (pronounced sheen neean kwai luh) Happy New Year, (again)!

That’s right, here in China, we get to celebrate New Years twice; once on December 31st and again only a few weeks later.  Chinese New Year is the biggest holiday in China.  The timing is dictated by the lunar calendar but usually falls between January 21 and February 20th.  This year, which is the Year of the Dog according to the Chinese Zodiac,  celebrations will begin on February 16th.

The festivities around this holiday remind me of Thanksgiving and Christmas in the US.  For Chinese families the holiday is marked by family gatherings, big dinners with more dishes than you could possibly eat, wearing the lucky color red, giving “hongbaos’ or red envelopes filled with money, lion dances, and so much more.  China literally shuts down for this holiday – stores are closed, schools are closed, airports and train stations are busier than you can imagine, but festivity is in the air.

Chinese New Year will definitely be a celebration we’ll recognize even after we return home.  It also doesn’t hurt that with time off of school and work, we get to recharge and explore once again.

Enjoy our pictures from Chinese New Year!

 

Lion Dance at the kids’ school
Outside our apartment has turned into a huge open air market as families get ready to celebrate. Here, a man sells tangerine trees, a popular food in China and at New Year in particular.  We eat so many tangerines now; I was so tempted to pluck one off his tree!
Both kids learned and performed Mandarin songs for the school program. Look closely and you can see Robby on the back row.
Rachel, with some of her best buddies, wanted to wear a traditional “qipao” for the celebration at school. She looked so pretty!
Robby at the Chinese Near Year celebration, in the lucky color red, shows off his sugar lollipop, another common during Chinese New Year.

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