With an explosion of the color red and lanterns, Chinese New Year announced its presence in celebration of the Lunar New Year as it has done for centuries. It is a big deal in Taiwan and is the equivalent to Christmas and New years in the States. Generally before the celebration, everyone cleans their home, “sweeping” away bad fortune and making room for the good.Everyone has the entire week off and most people head home, generally in the south, leaving Taipei relatively empty and boring.
I headed south as well to stay with a couple of my uncles. First I went to Kaohsiung, for the most part just relaxing and practicing my Chinese. For the New Year, we had an abundance of food complemented with saki, which was delicious. The dishes included fish, shrimp, vegetables, hot pot, etc. I’m not sure what the dishes were called so I’ll let the pictures do the talking.
Each dish generally has deeper meaning. For example, a certain vegetable may symbolize long life and not eating the fish dish entirely symbolizes having “extra” for the upcoming year. The older generations (this guy) usually give the younger ones red envelopes filled with money. The denominations should be even numbers as odd ones are given during funerals. The number four is considered unlucky so anything with '4' is a bad idea. Further, there is a common exchange of congratulations as well as saying “wan shi ru yi” (may you have whatever your heart desires). At midnight everyone sets off fireworks to scare off evil spirits in celebration of the New Year, which continue throughout the entire week. There is also an honoring of the deceased parents, burning incense and placing an offering of fruit on small temples dedicated to them that every household is likely to have. Chinese New Year extends over several days and each day has separate meaning. While I won’t detail all of them, the first day is when the sons return to their parents home and celebrate with the family. The second day, the married daughters return to their homes to celebrate with their parents. The last day, 15 days after the start of Chinese New Year, is the Lantern Festival where many light paper lanterns, commonly painted over with Chinese characters symbolizing prosperity, good fortune, love and family and float them into the air. While the traditions differ, Chinese New Year, like Christmas is a time of family, high spirits, abundant food and relaxation.
On the second day of Chinese New Year I rode with my cousin to his wife’s family’s house in Meinung. This area of Taiwan was settled by the Hakka people, of which I am ¼. Their primary harvest back in the day was tobacco and there is a famous tradition of making paper umbrellas that continues to this day. While there, we visited these fields of flowers- fields and fields of flowers in the calm countryside among distant mountains and rice fields. Afterwards, my cousin drove me to my youngest Uncles house, which is probably the most relaxing place on Earth. He lives in Gaoshu, meaning “Tall tree” in Chinese just north of PingTung City where my Mom grew up. My Uncles property is several acres, which he uses to grow fruits and vegetables, just as his neighbors do. We had a bbq that night, eating homegrown produce, some of the freshest I’ve had, among a cool breeze as the sun set. The surrounding area smells like flowers and overall was incredibly calming. Some of the things that my Uncle grows includes coffee, papaya, mango, grapes, this small green fruit similar to an apple not in the States, bananas, corn, lettuce, tomatoes and so on. All of it was delicious and I felt healthier just eating it.
After a good nights sleep I awoke at 6:30 to the cool morning air billowing through the open window above my head and the sound of frogs and birds, a luxury not commonly offered in my apartment in Taipei and headed with my Uncle and Aunt to a nearby mountain where we hiked to a 120ft waterfall. The water, clean enough to drink, pooled crystal clear at the bottom. The cascading water off the rocks offered a misty breeze, which was so crisp and refreshing that it awoke the body and mind better than any cup of coffee could. Just soaking up the freshness, each breath I took felt like I was adding years to my life. My uncle meditated for 20 or so minutes on a nearby rock facing the waterfall, explaining afterward that after relaxing and meditating each morning he was relaxed all day. With that, I realized that I don’t think I’ve ever seen him without a smile on his face. We returned back home for a hearty breakfast of eggs, toast, vegetables, fruit and a flower tea that was perfectly sweet, not over or underwhelming, but just right. The rest of my time there was nothing but satisfying as any stress melted away and I sat on the couch eating cookies and drinking tea.
Leaving Southern Taiwan was difficult, but I made it back to Taipei for a few days, where it unfortunately rained perpetually for the remainder. As a result I didn’t do too much except enjoy the relative calm of a major city during Chinese New Year. Overall, it was a great experience and will likely visit Taiwan during this time in the future in order to experience it again.
Great pictures! and that's some good eatin' man.
ReplyDelete