Chun Jie Kuai Le! (Part 2 of 3)

The greatest gift to me from this Chun Jie was the fulfillment of my Spring Festival DREAM! Thanks to my friend's father I got to follow the custom of the Chinese people and light a firework with a CIGARETTE!!! It was one of the greatest thrills I have experienced while being in China. (Seeing Chairman Mao’s dead “body” will be my next.)

After the firecrackers are lit, (which doesn’t last long for some. You do it, watch it, and return inside. As a Chinese person, you don’t take much time to admire.) When you finish with the fireworks, you return inside to eat your lucky jiao zi (dumplings). In some provinces, people hide a coin inside one dumpling. Whoever gets that dumpling has luck for the New Year! (This is not a tradition in Tianjin. I tried to act out how we could choke if we did that. haha I meant to make them laugh. I think I did.)

After eating your fill of delicious jiao zi dipped in the special, yummy garlic vinegar, you try to stay up all night. This is my second year and I can’t do it. I am not Chinese. (Chinese people tend to stay up pretty late anyways.) Around 6 o’clock in the morning people wake up and set off more firecrackers. This wakes me up, but not my Chinese friend. This year, however, I was able to turn the “booms” into a sort of melodic beat and fall back asleep to the music of the Chun Jie firecrackers.

In the morning, special jiao zi and other foods are supposed to be eaten in order to continue preparing for wealth and prosperity in the New Year. The dumplings are so important for the New Year because they are made in the shape of the old money. If you eat the jiao zi, you are eating money!

And so, we have now entered the year of the Snake. Last year was the year of the Dragon. The dragon was a WAY bigger deal. My friends tell me that not many people like the snake and they have to try to make it cuter than how people perceive it. They have an ancient story about a 1000-year-old snake who became a beautiful woman and a prince (?) who fall in love. Tragically, they are prevented from marrying because a priest (?) who thinks that love cannot exist between these two, prevents them from coming together. (If I understood my friend’s telling of it appropriately.) They try to promote this story during the year of the snake.