Shay Mein Qui Le

For those of you who may be a little weak in Mandarin, the title of this post is simly happy new year! Tonight is Chinese New Years Eve which kicks off a week long celebration of holiday and festitivities. To put this in a North American perspective, now is the time when you would recieve those calenders when you dine out at Mandarin or your local chinese buffet. This year is the year of the pig which is actually the same year I was born (1983). This is the greatest time of celebration for the Chinese as they go shopping, travel to be with their families, clean their houses (interestingly i found out last week that if you dont recycle in Taiwan you can get fined fairly severly by the government.....not a bad idea), and exchange red envelopes. This practice of exchanging red envelopes is an interesting one.

The envelopes are always red, as the chinese beleive this is a lucky colour. Ive heard that some people make a point to wear as much red as they can, including underware, if they are going to gamble. The red envelopes always contain a certain amount of money. Being a Confuciest and Taoist society, there is an interesting way in which gifts are given. Confuciest and Taoist society place great emphasis on respecting elders. Everything is the same as back home until children begin to work.
Once kids start to work (so pretty much everyone our age back home) they will no longer recieve gifts from their parents but are instead required to start paying back their parents out of gratitude for everything they have done to bring them up. So pretty much red envelope giving only goes one way. Children (if they are working) give money to their parents. If not parents give money to their kids. Grandparents receive money from parents and give it to grandkids. Interestingly enough, for relatives who have passed away, family members make firepits on the side of the road and burn fake money in a belief that this wll help them be looked after in the after world.

When i first heard about this practice I thought about it for some time. I started thinking about how different people/religions treat death and rememberance of their loved ones. I think it is interesting that the Chinese primary concern seems to be that their deseaced relatives will have enough money in the afterlife. Compare this to Judiasm where our primary concern is simply to make sure our deceased relatives are remembered once a year on the anniversery of their death. One could argue that the Chinese are remembering their relatives through the money burning, but I like how the Jewish one cuts out the materialism. Just an interesting thought.

Tonight, My roomamte Keith and I have been invited to one of our co-workers houses to partake in a true chinese new year's eve feast with her family. I am very excited to get a real life taste of what goes on during this time of year. Apperently her cousins are fluent so hopefully the language barrier wont be too bad with her parents. Then tommorow i am boarding a bus to the south of Taiwan to the tropical area known as Kenting. Its about a three hour drive (might be longer depending on the traffic) so i made sure to get a seat on one of those luxury buses. Kenting is supposed to be a great place with a beach where you can surf, mountains to hike on, and hot springs to relax in. The weatherman has predicted temperatures could reach 30 degrees celcius. There should be about 15 of us down there so it should be an amazing time. It will be nice to take a break from teaching and the politics of this company i work for. I keep meaning to put some pictures up, but unfortuneately i dont have time to figure out how to do it right now, seeing as i have to get ready to go to my chinese new year celebration.
So on that note a Shay Mein Qui Le to all. Im outta here