Chinese New Years Eve is traditionally a holiday here in China. However, this year it is not a public holiday. Why? Well, the day is named “chu xi” (get rid of Xi) after a monster that was killed by a hero called Nian (“year”; hence the New Year). With Xi Jin Ping as the new president, the government decided that celebrating “chu xi” might give the wrong signal to the masses. So the holiday, was not a recognized public holiday.

The Lee/Wang family (Linda, Bill, Ethan, Ellie and Maddy) hosted a Chinese New Year Eve party. On this night, the fireworks are the biggest, loudest and longest of the Chinese New Year. The Wang family lives at Thomson Rivera which is right on the river for a perfect view of the fireworks. Thomson Rivera is three blocks (side gate to side gate) from our compound. Ellie and Eleri have been playing together more this year which has been wonderful for weekend play dates NOT in Jinqiao. Emersyn and Ethan have their core classes together for the first time so they have formed a friendship. They do homework together many nights via skype.

Emersyn and her gang of friends slept over at Kaitlin’s house last night (Sunday). Hayden’s Mom would be her back from Jinqiao for the party. Ellie played at our house all day to give her parents time to prepare for the party.

Bill had been in the kitchen all day to present a variety of delicious dishes. He had meat balls, chicken, steak, sushi, noodles, salad and more. Everyone bought a dish to share for a large feast. I have no photos of the food or the friends as I was busy enjoying the night. Emersyn left the party early to walk home. Bella went home with her to sleep over and to really go to sleep this time. They had stayed up all night at Kaitlin’s house to be fully exhausted. It is part of being a teen and learning!

One of their friends, Karen and Brendon, came with fireworks.

We took the fireworks down to the river to have our own celebration. It was a cold night, but clear.

The gang of kids.

We all enjoyed the show of fireworks early, around 11:00pm. Tradition is midnight for the fireworks lighting. I had my little, pocket camera, therefore, I have only a few good ones as the delay in the night is too much and the fireworks are done by the time the shutter clicks!

After our personally display of fireworks, we went back to Linda and Bills’ house for more food and wine. At midnight, we went out on the terrace to watch and listen to the main firework show. The display is always good, but this year was much less. In the past, the fireworks have gone on for hours. This year, at midnight the cracking of fireworks began and ended in 30 minutes. The government was asking people to do less fireworks this year to keep the pollution down.

Eleri and I left the party at 1:00am. We walked in the cold as there are very few taxis on this night. The side gate is locked at 11:00pm so we had to walk the extra two blocks to the front gate. This is what our front gate looked like from all the fireworks that were set off – covered in firework paper.

It was a fun night shared with friends – a great way to start the Chinese New Year!