新年快樂 or Happy New Year.

Chinese New Year ( called Lunar New Year or Spring Festival ) is the most important holiday in China. Many people leave the city to go home to other parts of China and spend the holiday with their family. In fact it is the largest annual human migration in history as hundreds of millions of Chinese head home by planes, trains busses and cars. Beijing becomes a ghost town with only a few restaurants and stores are open. WuMart was open but few others. This year is the year of the Rabbit. There are 12 signs of the zodiac and they each take turn having their years. The signs are Rat, Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Sheep, Monkey, Rooster, Dog and Pig.  So everywhere are images of cute bunnies. It is a little hard to take as everywhere I look I see bugs bunny. Next year should be really cool because it will be the year of the Dragon! But for now I am stuck with fluffy bunnies. Bugs would be proud.

A little history. According to legend a mythical beast called Nian would emerge on the first day of the new year and devour, crops and a pig hear and a cow there. But Nian was a glutton and went too far by devouring villagers and especially children. Once they saw Nian cower from a little child wearing red. So they figured Nian was afraid of red and that is why you see that color everywhere. When I say everywhere I mean red banners on every building. red lanterns hanging from the trees, you can't have enough red! Nian was also afraid of firecrackers so the villagers used them to keep him away. I can't blame him for being afraid of firecrackers. I mean they could put an eye out!  Eventually, as the legend continues  Nian was captured by a Taoist monk by the name of Hongiun Laozu. He never came back to the village again. Good riddance Nian. Anyone who devours children has to go I say.

I went with a Chinese photographer to take photos of the opening ceremony at the Temple of the Earth. There are four main temples surrounding the Forbidden City he told me,  Temple of the Sun, Temple of the moon, Temple of the Earth and Temple of Heaven. The Temple of Earth is the second largest of the four temples second to Temple of Heaven and was built during the Ming Dynasty. The Temple fair was held on The eve of Spring Festival and it was attended by large crowds. The opening ceremony was preformed in the middle on a large stone altar.  A character playing the emperor is praying for rain in this reenactment as soldiers stand in formation with beautiful costumes. Since Northern China is going through a very long drought, it seems very appropriate for the prayers. 

The crowd lines up around the stage and seems delighted with the ceremony. But for all of the photographers, videographers and TV reporters doing standups from the stage you could easily transport yourself back to the time of the great dynasties.  Outside the gates are lines of shops selling crafts, booths selling traditional foods like tea soup and some kind of tofu sausage. 

There is a line of booths offering to separate Chinese from their hard earned kuai (local slang for Yuan) with a game of chance. Not much different from a county fair in the US. Shoot the basketball thought he just barely large enough hoop. Fish for a bag of goodies, each bag guaranteed to contain a prize! People seem relaxed posing in front of trees decorated with many lanterns or in front of a large rabbit signifying the year of the rabbit. The fair feels like a combination of street fair and larger county fair but with shows and Chinese opera. Parents buy their children treats to eat like skewered meat or maybe if you are really good a small grilled squid on a stick. Crafts are a big thing during the fair and I am struck by the skill of a man who is weaving together animals from what looks like bamboo leaves. He has made a frog, and some grasshoppers.

 It is amazingly beautiful and relaxing. I see a small girl with her parents and try to take her picture. I think she mistook me for Nian himself because she had a horrified look on her face and froze like a statue. Her parents laughed and with sign language indicated that she hasn't seen many people with beards before. I guess I won't be opening up a day care center.