Happy Chinese New Year 2012

I am able to block out the sound of fireworks, but Mimi is not. I want to sleep late, but the little white doggy insists that I get up.

It’s the morning of Chinese New Year and we have ushered in the Year of the Pekingese – at my place anyway.

Our morning routine ends and I decide to let Meems catch up on sleep while I ride my electric motorbike into town. I park in front of Starbucks, delighted to see the bike watcher has taken a day off. I get to keep my 8 cents.

Last year on Chinese New Year, this Starbucks had more customers. This year, it only has three at this hour of the morning. I sit at the high bench on the second floor, overlooking the busy tree-lined streets below as I sip my soy latte. My hands are so cold that I don’t even get a cardboard heat-protection sleeve on my paper cup. I want my hands to get warmed by the hot liquid inside.

Bus after bus stops below, letting off passengers who have come to the Taoist temple situated on this block. On Chinese New Year, people who claim to have no religious beliefs hedge their bets by lighting incense and praying for good fortune in the coming year. They just go through the motions, with no clear idea of whom they pray to. The temple may be Taoist, but it is seen as a conglomeration of Chinese traditional religion. If a Buddhist temple were closer and easier to get to, most of them would be there burning incense instead.

This temple has a clear advantage over the Buddhist temple west of town…this temple is located smack-dab in the middle of town, and all the department stores are open today. Smaller stores around town are closed down for days, but the downtown merchants wouldn’t dare miss their chance at income. And someone has to feed all these temple tourists, so the restaurants will rake in money today too.

People buy bundles of incense sticks for less than a dollar. They pay to get inside the temple, light the sticks in a trash-filled bonfire, shake the sticks towards the temple, then toss the used sticks back into the trash-filled bonfire. Parents teach their children how to do the ritual. I don’t get the sense that anyone really believes there is power in the sacrament; they are simply perpetrating their Chinese tradition.

A festive atmosphere fills the air as people eat cotton candy, buy trinket souvenirs, and buy balloons outside the temple courtyard. People have just come out for something to do. It’s a sunny day, and too much family togetherness for the holidays could be volatile in a country where forgiveness is not part of their psyche. It’s just as well they get out and about.

I’ve come down with a cold, so I grab a bite to eat and then return home to nap with my electric blanket. But apparently Mimi has slept the entire time I was gone to town. She doesn’t want us to spend the rest of the afternoon sleeping. After half an hour, she rumbles, paws me and forces me up again.

Yup, definitely the Year of the Pekingese.

P.S. To those of you for whom my sarcasm has made things unclear -- it is really the Year of the Dragon. There is no Year of the Pekingese on the official Chinese Lunar Horoscope, it only exists on the unofficial E and Mimi calendar. There is a real Chinese Year of the Dog though, it's just not this year.

Fire pit at the temple.

I saw a lot of people with blue teeth and lips. Hmmm, I wonder why?
Cotton candy, yum!