Happy Year-of-the-Tiger!
This year, Valentines Day and the Chinese New Year were celebrated on the same day- Claire and Candice took a little walk around town to show you how our friends and neighbors celebrated....
This neighborhood shrine was crowded with people leaving offerings
Many people celebrate by ordering chickens and ducks for their parties, so the shops were full of hanging fowl. :)
A lot of temporary shops popped up for the week also, selling Chinese treats and paper goods to be burned.
Burning paper products (like fake paper money and bars of gold) in order to provide for ancestors in the afterlife. (I read that this is a ritual of Buddhist Chinese only).
A temporary shrine set up for the day.
This lady was selling Chinese sweets and we bought a bag- yum!
Grinning with a cheek full of peanuts and sesame seeds :)
We also saw lots of little girls dressed up in Chinese dresses (mostly red). My English student, Sao, is Chinese/Thai and she's been telling me about her family's New Year traditions- the most important being that the entire family gathers together and pays respect to the elders and have an enormous feast together.
Happy Chinese New Year!
-Candice