New Year: Take Deux!

So here’s a cute little story for you: I went bowling last Saturday night in an area in NW London Paddington called Queensway. The bowling alley is in a place called Queen’s Ice Bowl located just around the corner from the Tube Station. I walked there from Covent Garden an including a quick stop at Subway (the restaurant). According to Google Maps, it’s about 3.5 miles; it took just over an hour. After meeting up with my friends, we bowled two games, where I did not bowl to my normal standard, scoring 111 in both games. (To put it into perspective, normally under 130 I consider a complete failure; the weekend before last (no, I’m not that avid a blower) I bowled 149 – slightly more typical.) Moral of this story is: in the early stages of my walk, I passed through an annual, international (though nationally focused) celebration and is the cultural topic of the week:

CHINESE NEW YEAR

In London, they’re calling it Shanghai week. I don’t have any pictures of it, because I’m an idiot and the only day I didn’t take my camera with me, I walked right though the heart of the celebrations. China town (the area north of Soho – the name of an area some may recognize from one of The Who’s greatest songs) is littered with lanterns and you can find tons of Chinese people taking after the Japanese and snapping pictures every where they you look.

I had, once upon a time the great pleasure of being in (now) actual China – Hong Kong – at the time of these celebrations. (I say “now” because I was there while Hong Kong was still then still under the lease to the British, which ended in 1997. I always thought it was kind of cool how the Chinese, unlike non-chinese people, got to have two new years every year – Chinese New Year and, of course, “REAL”/Calendar New Year.

Chinese New Year is based on a combination of the lunar cycle and solar movements. Celebrations take place beginning with the first new moon of the New Year and continue for 15 days, ending the lantern festival, celebrates family and thanksgiving, gives Chinese people the chance to start over fresh, and (though unclear) has celebratory roots dating further back than the Qin Dynasty earlier than 221 BC.

Everyone displays little oranges.
Firecrackers are set off.
Kids get little red packets with money. Sometimes candy.
In real China, traditional red dress is worn in the streets.
Everyone eats a big feast with family, fish, dumplings, etc.

For most of my friends and me, this is also our year: the Year of the Boar, which has only ever come one other year (1995) since we were born (1983). On a twelve year cycle, these signs of Chinese astrology signify something important, but I'm really not sure...(what does this look like, wikipedia?). However, in addition to being a big year for the Chinese kids born in the same year as me, this is a big year for China, as preparations for the 2008 Olympics are now underway as well.

As most of you know, I am not Chinese, but last week I made a dish I have not previously attempted. This dish, though not hard to make, was possibly one of the hardest culinary feats I have ever attempted (which I ironic considering my brother is both an excellent AND a trained chef). I made fried rice, which may have been an unconscious salute to my fellow slant-eyed brothers in their time of celebrations, but just in case that wasn’t really clear:

“Kung Hei Fat Choi!”