Gung hay fat choy!

Happy Chinese New Year Steve!!!

 

lol have fun steve!

 

Who you calling fat? Oh wait...NVM

Have a great day Steve!!!

 

Have a good one Steve!

 

Happy bunny year, Steve!

 

:zzzz:

Happy new year!

 

Happy New Year Steve!!!!!! ;D

 

Thank you everyone

Yes , fireworks almost all night over last couple of nights
the neighbours will complain soon if I dont stop it LOL

Chinese New Year , the Lunar Calender, is a concept thats not easily adopted by those of us used to the Roman calender but none the less, its a tradition that is incredibly important to most Chinese people I know ( and naturally to even more that I dont personally know)

Guangdong province where I live- being a sea boarding province and thus ideal for trade/ transportation is one of the many provinces of this type that because of this become a centre for production/ factories etc

the demand for workers, is greater than the province itself can provide
and thus migrant workers make up the majority of many factories work forces
(hence I learned to speak Mandarin as opposed to the local dialect Cantonese
simply because even in the province of Canton which Guangdong used to be called, there is more Mandarin then Cantonese spoken at factories and many local businesses)

Chinese culture, just like Western culture places great value on spending festive occasions with loved ones and family
which means there is an exodus of people from the sea boarding provinces of people making their way across the country prior to the New Year

New years eve is the most important day of the festivity, with a large family meal of several different dishes (and in some provinicial cultures they cook one dish which nobody must eat that day, as it represents future meals and must remain untouched so as to protect future meals)

trains, coaches, and for those lucky enough to have good salaries, planes are all booked solid for up to 3 days before New Years eve
they put extra carraiges on, and generally try and make it possible for everyone who wants to get home in time to do so

queues as ticket offices for up to 1 week before the festivities are very long, with many people sleeping outside so they can get tickets early the following day

many of the local shops where I live, which for the rest of the year have a policy of being opened as long as there are potential customers, have pulled the shutters down over last couple of days and they themselves even if they are local, prioritise their families over their commercial interests

today, where I live it will seem like a ghost town, with a large percentage of people having already arrived at their respective home towns and another large percentage of people, just staying at home with their families

factories in general close for 1 week- its traditional or considered bad luck if you re open your factory before the 8th day of the new year (only in some provinces not in all)


so to cut a long story short
I have a weeks holiday, although it does not count against my holiday allowance
so the reality is, I have a weeks work with absolutely nothing to do

business as usual for Steve Wright then eh?

Steve

 

very interesting! Thanks for sharing and enjoy!

 

Very cool, Steve! I am taking Mandarin Chinese at my school this year(1st time it is being offered). It's pretty interesting. We did learn a bit about Chinese new year and much of what you mentioned came up in our talk. I didn't know about all the stores closing for a whole work though.

Have fun with your break from work and good luck with your new year!