Spring Festival Recap

As I mentioned in the last blog, I spent the Spring Festival in Hangzhou with my good friend, Echo, and her family. If you can remember back to past blogs about my travels in Hangzhou, you will remember that I always have very interesting and unique experiences while I am there! Keep in mind that Spring Festival is like Christmas in America, very much a family-oriented holiday and I spent 3 days of the 7-day holiday with Echo's family. Here's a recap of some of my experiences this time around!

Fireworks
Last year I wrote a long blog about the craziness of Spring Festival, and a lot of this craziness comes from firework-mania! Unlike in the U.S., fireworks are legal (at least during the 7-day holiday) so any Tom, Mike, or Bill can set-off fireworks anywhere they please! This includes street corners, driveways, or rooftops and I am not talking your ordinary sparklers but actual 4th of July fireworks! The sound at midnight on Spring Festival Eve is like a warzone surrounding you and if you are trying to hold a conversation you must yell to be heard! This year on Spring Festival Eve we were at Echo's villa in the country so the noise was not quite so booming, except for the neighbor who I'm guessing is a self-proclaimed pyro. We went to the 4th floor of the villa and watched the fireworks going off over the city - beautiful! We even bought a few of our own to set off...below is Echo's grandpa playing with a sparkler. :)


Dongxi
In Chinese, dongxi means "stuff" or "things." When we moved out to the villa from Echo's apartment in the city, we took two carloads of dongxi - most of it being food for all of the meals that Echo's mom and aunt would cook over the next two days! I was only slightly disturbed when Echo asked me to carry the box with the live chicken. The white box in the picture below would soon house two more live chickens that relatives had given to Echo's family for the New Year. Surprisingly enough, all three chickens survived the holiday and were happily clucking in the garden at the end of the big meals! You can see Echo below with her grandparents and just a small portion of the dongxi on the floor next to them.


Food
I always try new foods when I am with Echo and this time was no exception! Some of the things that made it onto my plate and into my stomach: frog, something that Echo said was like a turtle but not a turtle..., crab at EVERY meal - YUM, a whole coconut delivered to me at a restaurant with a straw stuck in the top...it felt very "Survivor," and shark fin (I felt terrible!) In the first picture below you can see Echo and I making the spring rolls for one of our dinners. Below that is PART of our Spring Festival Eve meal - several more dishes came later. All of these were made by Echo's mom - the poor woman spent two whole days doing nothing but cooking!



Family Visits
Another tradition at Spring Festival time is to use the 7-days to visit family members. There is a very exact "pecking order" that I have yet to understand but I'll explain what I do know. On Spring Festival Eve the grandparents and their son's families get together. The next day the grandparents get together with their daughter's families. (In past years the woman who marries into a man's family is considered to be more a part of her husband's family than her own. This is why her husband's family gets priority over the most important day in the holiday and only the next day does the woman get to visit her birth family. Much of this tradition is dissolving, though, in today's culture.) The family then spends the remaining 5 days visiting cousins, siblings, aunts, uncles, and any other family members at their homes. I went on one of these visits to see Echo's grandmother's brother. Basically, we sat there for about an hour eating fruit and nuts while Echo's grandma socialized with the extended family. We took lots of gifts and they sent us back with gifts. Echo's family will likely continue to do this throughout the holiday...taking gifts, receiving gifts...

Heating System
Okay, the last thing I'll comment on from my trip to Hangzhou is the heating system! Well, there is none! Even though temps were in the 30's-40's, there is no central heating system in Southern China. None. Period. Everyone relies on wall air conditioning units that have a heat feature or little heating machines that everyone gathers around to stay warm. Also, winter coats are worn indoors at all times since it is even colder inside than outside! Sure makes me appreciate my cozy little apartment in the North!

I head to Hong Kong in a few days - I'll be there for a week. I might try to write one more post before I go but if you don't hear from me for over a week, that's why!