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First Day of Chinese New Year: Deities of Heaven and Earth, Welcome.
Day one of Chinese New Year is the day for welcoming the Gods of the heavens and earth. At the same time, the evil spirits need to be chased away, hence the non-stop fireworks. In the Western world,...
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Chinese New Year Day Three: Don’t Go Knocking
Day Three of Chinese New Year is known as the Chìkǒu 赤口, which directly translates to “red mouth”. It is customary to burn more paper offering over trash fires, but I have witnessed none of this in...
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Chinese New Year Day 4: Back to Reality…Well, for some.
Day four of Chinese New Year is somewhat uneventful compared to the last few days. The fires have dwindled, the firecrackers are fewer and further between (but make no mistake they are still going...
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Chinese New Year Day 5: Stuff Your Face With Dumplings
Day five of Chinese New Year is the God of Wealth’s birthday. And what does one do on the God of Wealth’s birthday? Well obviously feast on dumplings, duh. And Karaoke. Yes, you gotta have karaoke....
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Chinese New Year Day 6: Firecracker Dodgeball
To be honest, day six of Chinese New Year is absent of special rituals. We are at the part of the New Year where things have hit a lull. The middle days are a time of quiet (minus the fireworks) when...
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Chinese New Year Day 9: Blow Out Your Neighbors’ Windows
Jade Emperor, they say it’s your birthday. And by they, I mean the industrial sized fireworks that went off by my building this morning at 7 am. My boyfriend and I (in our half- asleep state) surely...
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Chinese New Year Day 13: Happy Birthday Guan Yu
I’ve noticed a trend, and I’m sure you have noticed it too. It seems to be that everyone and their mom’s birthday takes place during the Chinese New Year. Today the birthday of Guan Yu, also known as...
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Chinese New Year Day 14: Let’s Blow Stuff Up.
The Yanshui Firework Festival takes place tomorrow in Tainan, located 40 km north of Kaohsiung. Also known as the Beehive Rocket Festival, it has been deemed the 5th most dangerous festival in the...
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Beehive Rocket Festival
The full moon has been known to make people do crazy things. Good thing the final day of the Chinese New year is always planned to fall on one. It’s my theory that the spell of the moon is one of the...
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Self Mutilation and Fireworks
Peanut butter and jelly. Apple pie and ice cream. Wine and cheese. Self mutilation and fireworks? Last night, a religious group in Taiwan hosted a celebration in my neighborhood. It couldn’t be...
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