At the mall directly next to where we live, they are constructing this tiger in preparation of Lunar New Year on February 14. I'm liking it a lot. It sure beats a Christmas tree. Last year the Christmas tree stayed up from late October/early November through the end of the Lunar New Year celebration which ended in mid-February. They just changed out the decorations and put up some gigantic red Chinese knots. This is much better.
Reece was born in the year of the tiger. I'd love to take his picture near this but I don't think we will have any daylight hours to take it before we leave for our trip. He's at school all day of course.
This mall, if you can believe it, hosted the biggest Western New Year's party in Beijing. A few minutes to midnight we were looking for some kind of countdown. On CCTV (China's government run stations) we found a split screen with Hong Kong on one side and our next door neighbor (this mall with giant sky screen) on the other. The mall was packed with people. We had no idea! We did hear a sudden loud cheer in the brief silence as the TV changed from one channel to the next. This picture on the screen explained it.
It was a great place for a countdown - with the descending numbers appearing on the massive screen overhead. It will be interesting to see if this becomes a tradition. The Chinese staff at my husband's company were not aware of this celebration until they saw it on TV. But then, Western New Year isn't really a huge deal here. Their new year is Lunar New Year.
That is the major holiday of the year. The whole country closes down for a couple of weeks as everyone returns home to be with family. It is an exciting time. We experienced it last year. (You can read more about it on my other blog as soon as Apple replaces my corrupted software - 5+ weeks and still waiting...) This year, we are doing as the Chinese and making the pilgrimage home ourselves. The kids get a longer holiday than at Christmas so it makes more sense that way, even though we missed being at home for Christmas this year.
MISSING HOME
Braden drew this picture this morning. I think he is thinking about our visit home. What do you think? It's a picture of him, Grandma & her house.
I better go finish packing!
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