CNY Eve

A rooster crows. I live in the middle of a city of several million people, and I don’t expect to hear a rooster crowing. I figure he’s saying good morning to me for the first and last time. By tonight he’ll be someone’s dinner. It’s Chinese New Year’s Eve, and tonight’s the night for the biggest family gathering and meal of the year.

Last night’s heavy snow didn’t accumulate. It fell into puddles from the previous week’s rain and melted on impact. A few flurries fall delicately from the sky as Mimi and I take our morning walk.

I can’t remember the last time it was so quiet in the Middle Kingdom. It’s usually such a noisy kind of place.

But today it is Sunday, it’s extremely cold and windy, and most people have already arrived at their holiday destination prior to the New Year holiday on Monday. They are sleeping in, storing up their energy for a long noisy night to come.

I want to stay out longer, to enjoy the quiet. But it is too cold.

Mimi and I return upstairs. It has rained most of the past week, and I have cabin fever. I want to get out. I go out on my electric motorbike to a coffee shop three blocks away. It is so cold and windy that I almost change my mind and return home, but I continue on.

I park my bike on the sidewalk, and a little old lady comes to collect her bike-watching fee of 8 cents. When she realizes it is me, the person who gave her a calendar for a gift last month, she says there is no charge. But I know she needs the money, so I double the coins and give her extra for the holiday. She is thankful. I don’t know how she can bear the cold all day.

I go to the coffee shop and order a latte. I am the only customer. I curl up on a brown leather sofa and sip my latte while reading my second book by Marie Monsen on my Kindle. After about an hour, I return home.

During Mimi’s afternoon walk, I realize the wind has stopped! We return to my apartment where I switch out my sweet dog for my camera, and I head out by foot again. I am going to the village that I can see over the wall from where I live.

First I pass by a small Buddhist temple. They are adding on to it to make it bigger. Then I see a woman clean her mop in the canal ... a lady buys Pepsi for her big dinner tonight ... a mahjong parlor sits empty. Voices of laughter emanate from the village homes, and from the windows I see family reunions going on inside.

It’s only 5, but the sun is setting. Firecrackers are popping everywhere now.

I return to my place and get on my electric bike to see what it is like to ride on almost-deserted streets. I love it! If it wasn’t so cold I would go further. But I end up instead at a restaurant that serves Central Asian-style food. I go here often, and the waitresses all know me. I love the eclectic green and red chandeliers, the beaded fringe over the counter, the cleanliness and the warmth. I certainly love the food.

A young couple sits at one table, two men sit at another. We are the only three tables of customers on this New Year’s Eve. Almost everyone else is home for the holidays. Even this restaurant will be closed for the next four days.

I eat, then pack the rest up to take back to my place. It is dangerous to be out on the roads now. Young men are setting off fireworks in the bicycle lane of the road where I need to travel. I am going to go back to my place for the rest of the evening.

I get back and move my plants and baskets off the balcony. If perchance my upstairs neighbors have come home, they may set off firecrackers that send flaming bits of paper to my balcony. It happens every year. If not tonight, then I expect it another night.

It is about 8 pm now, and it is really noisy with fireworks and firecrackers. I eventually go to bed at 10, although I know I’ll be up again at midnight. Mimi can’t stand any of it. I pull covers and mattresses from the guest bed and put them in my bay window to absorb some of the noise before it gets to our ears. Last year we slept in the hallway to block the noise, but I really want to be warmed by my electric blanket on my own bed tonight.

At five minutes until midnight, I am awakened by the loudest onslaught yet of whistles and booms – the midnight fireworks are exploding. I get up and go to the living room to admire them from the huge windows. In general I think they are annoying, but they are not going away so I am trying to find a way to like them. In my new way of looking at things, they are beautiful.

After 20 minutes or so, I go back to bed, although the constant stream of fireworks will continue through the night and until the afternoon of the next day.

I don’t get much sleep, but the year of the dragon successfully arrives. The first of fifteen consecutive days of celebration has now begun.

I see this pathway from my apartment complex, but a wall separates it from me. But today I went to take a look.

A Buddhist temple is built in the middle of a block, not visible from any street.

Until yesterday, the weather was springlike, and flowers had begun to bloom on this tree.

A canal runs next to the Buddhist temple, and a village is built along the canal.

A bit like Venice, homes are built along the canal.

Doors are decorated for the Chinese New Year holiday. It says "fu" which translates to blessing or luck.

Some doors, like this metal one, have the "fu" turned upside down. Its owners hope
that luck will fall upon them in the coming year.

She has guests coming over for dinner, so she buys two large bottles of Pepsi at the village store.

Husband and wife watch TV at their village store. There is no big meal at their place tonight, but as one of the few shops open in town, they will make money from others who think of last minute things to buy for the family reunion meals.