Chinese New Year, The Year of the Rat and other random thoughts

How is it possible that a rat gets a whole year dedicated to it? Rats are dirty and live in dirty places. Rats are not even cute. (OK, so they were kinda cute in the movie Ratatouille.) I don't like rats. I never have, and I don't think I ever will. But this past month in China, everywhere you went, people were celebrating the Year of the Rat.

Actually, I live in China and I am not sure if very many people here pay attention to the Chinese Zodiac. People seem to pay more attention to...well...setting off the biggest loudest firecrackers next to the building Mara is trying to sleep in. OK...that is an exaggeration. But fireworks and firecrackers are a huge part of the Chinese New Year Celebration.

This year I was not in China on the actual Chinese New Year Day. (I was soaking up the sun in Thailand.) However, I was in China to celebrate the Lantern Festival. (the 15th day of the Lunar Calendar and really the last big shebang in the New Year celebration ) On the evening of the Lantern Festival, people will go for a stroll outside and children will carry around lanterns on sticks. And then many people will set off a very long string of firecrackers until the wee hours of the morning.

During the Lantern Festival, people will get together with their friends and family. They will eat small little balls of sticky rice. They eat these sticky rice balls together because they are round and sweet and they hope their relationship will be the same; sweet and continue on and on without an end.

And so, this year for the Lantern Festival I invited some friends over. We ate Chinese food, sang songs, ate sticky rice balls, talked about what they did during the New Year, listened to the fire crackers, and did not mention rats.