Chinese New Year is in full swing. And let me tell you, it’s a big deal. I read somewhere that it is the biggest annual human migration. I believe it. It seems that everyone is going somewhere. People use the week to go back to visit family and friends. It’s like Christmas, Thanksgiving, and New Years all rolled into one.I know that everybody gets a week off for New Years, but I wanted to know which of the next nine days is the actual New Year’s day. So before break, I asked my students. They couldn’t tell me. The best they could say was “Well Mr. VanNoord, it’s kinda like a whole week.” True enough.
Chinese New Year is a time to get rid of the old and replace it with new and make a new start. Many people in China and Hong Kong use the New Year to replace household items like dishes, rugs and even furniture. On our seventh floor, we have a little lounge area. Last week, a very nice area rug suddenly appeared. When I inquired, sure enough, one of our ICS families had donated a slightly used rug because ostensibly they had purchased a new one in anticipation of the New Year.
About two or three weeks ago, we started noticing small potted orange trees –actually, they are more like a bush. They are small, but they are completely covered in tiny mandarin oranges. These bushes appeared in bank lobbies and outside of restaurants. They are everywhere.
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