A foreigner's views on the Spring Festival
- By Mitchell Blatt
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E-mail China.org.cn, February 18, 2015
It's loud. It's chaotic. Sometimes it can even be a little bit dangerous, as the tragedy at the Bund on New Year's Eve this year illustrates. But everyone celebrating the festival together and taking time off from work makes it a beautiful time.
On the morning of Lantern Festival, the staff at the guesthouse I was staying at gave me a bowl of yuanxiao soup. The soup consumed during Lantern Festival has balls made of glutinous rice and filled with sweet or salty fillings. (In southern China, the dish is called tangyuan.) There are many other traditions included in Spring Festival, and experiencing them is a pleasure.
But now I can see it's not just rest and relaxation. The reason Chinese workers need to have Spring Festival off is because of how busy they are before Spring Festival! In those final weeks of the Chinese lunar year, companies want to get lots of unfinished work done, and workers often have to stay into the night or even work on weekends.
Furthermore, not all workers get the week off. Evidenced by the fact that some shops are still open, some people have to work. I haven't yet had the pleasure of having to purchase train tickets in advance of the Spring Festival travel rush, but I did see in 2012 that Beijing's train stations were crowded with people waiting in line and sleeping on the floor the days before the holidays.
With all that said, there are some Spring Festival traditions I would recommend other foreigners experience in 2015. New Year's Eve is Feb. 18. On that night, many people have feasts and watch the Spring Festival Gala on TV. Lantern Festival takes place on March 5. There are often lantern shows in public squares held starting on or around Lantern Festival and continuing for weeks. The lantern show in Fuzimiao in Nanjing actually starts one week before Spring Festival, a move that will probably decrease congestion. Look for paper cuttings and Spring Festival wishes adorned to the windows and doors of houses.
Let us all hope for prosperity and good health in 2015, the Year of the Sheep.
The author is a columnist with China.org.cn. For more information please visit: http://www.china.org.cn/opinion/MitchellBlatt.htm
Opinion articles reflect the views of their authors, not necessarily those of China.org.cn.
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