Holidays

Well, considering my last post was on Christmas, it might be good for me to explain that there are holidays here. There are several festivals that we do not celebrate in the USA. Most of them are based on the moon cycles. We do not usually see the moon due to all the lights and buildings here but we know that it is still out there!

The first festival that we encountered was Mid-Autumn Festival. We had worked through Labor (or maybe that is Labour because of the British influence) Day but the on the 15th day of the 8th lunar month Asian cultures celebrate the harvest with lanterns, dragon dances, and, of course, mooncakes. any schools take a week or two off and everyone shares a variety of mooncakes. There are many styles of these (just like there are different fruitcakes styles). Some of them are pretty tasty. But after I recently found out that I am allergic to many of the ingredients I won’t be eating them again next year.

We went to one of the dragon dances one evening. It was so crowded and the dragon itself was a vine with sticks of incense burning. Wish this blog could give you a smell too. It was hot and sticky with incense hanging in the air. The crowd was very close so no room for air movement or people movement. This culture has a tendency to push past you if you give them a little room. So personal space is not a thing here. You push in close or lose your space (as Mike found out).

You have already heard about Thanksgiving and Christmas for us but we did celebrate New Years and Mike’s birthday. We spent a fun evening with the Americans here in Hong Kong. As I look around that table I am reminded that our time is limited with some of these new friends. Joan and Dave will leave in May. Glen, Beth, Rob, and Judy will leave in the summer of 2020. What a change this will be for our group. I know that God will provide new people to help and be members of our small group.

Mike’s birthday was celebrated twice. One celebration was with Asia Lutheran Seminary (ALS) staff and students as a surprise to him. The other celebration was on his actual birthday in Greece. We were on a study tour for ALS covering the footsteps of Paul. We went to cities that Paul visited in his ministry that are now part of Greece and Italy. It was a wonderful trip. The tour company provided a cake for Mike at the end of a long day and the group sang Happy Birthday. Certainly this will be a birthday to remember!

Chinese New Year (CNY) is the biggest holiday. All the decorations went up in our neighborhood early in January. Lots of red lanterns, fake firecrackers, dragons, and golden pigs were everywhere. This is the year of the gold pig. There are twelve animals that rotate through the years based on the lunar new year. Then there are modifiers of earth, water, fire, gold, and wood. We looked up what year we were born. I was born in the year of the water tiger and Mike was born in the year of the gold rat. Do you know what year you are?

We did not experience the first part of this holiday in Hong Kong because we were at the China team retreat in Thailand. We had a few messages from friends of “Happy New Year.” Otherwise it was just a warm enjoyable time with a big group of friends learning and growing in God’s Word! All the local people go that first week to visit family (sounds a little like our Thanksgiving and Christmas). It was the perfect time to bring all the Friends of China teachers to a retreat!

When we came home from the retreat to Thailand I was not prepared for many of the shops to be closed down. It was little harder to get my fresh fruits and veggies at the market. It all seemed very strange and oddly quieter (not completely quiet). The music in the stores has been more Chinese and very happy. One of the traditions in Hong Kong during this time is the giving of red packets. At Christmas, gift giving was noticeably absent but CNY is the time to give gifts: primarily money in these pretty red (and gold) envelopes. There are specific rules about the bills being only crisp bills of specific denominations. You cannot give 40 dollars to anyone because 4 sounds like the word for death. You are expected to give a red packet to specific service people, friends, and coworkers and especially to children. And not just one packet from Mike and me but one from each of us. You must give them with both hands to the recipient and say specific greetings or blessings. These rules were made known to us a little at a time so we were sure we were going to mess this tradition up big time! And we did. The pretty little envelopes were being sold at many stores around town. Because we were going to be gone for the first week of CNY, I went ahead and bought some envelopes. Then we were told that the bills should not be folded, so I went back and found longer envelopes to give crisp unfolded bills. Then I stood in line at our bank for over an hour to obtain crisp, unwrinkled bills of the appropriate denominations. It turns out that the envelopes that I bought had the last name printed on it (in a Chinese character) of Choi. So now all our security guards and service people think our last name is Choi. No one told us about this until all but the last few envelopes were given out. I have just a couple of those envelopes left (David, if you need them, let me know). CNY lasts for 15 days and then all the decorations come down. CNY all in all has been a very enjoyable part of our lives here in Hong Kong.

As the city begins to get back to normal, I am reminded that it is not really what I would consider normal. I went into the drugstore (like a Walgreens at home) and walked around listening to standard Christmas music – Rudolf the Red-nosed Reindeer and Jingle Bells. Oh well; maybe it is always Christmas but never winter here!

No matter what the holiday, we are given the opportunity to learn more about our new culture and meet many new friends. It was fun to give gifts to the new people in our lives and ask God to bless them. What an awesome reminder of the gift that God has given us in Christ. We love because He first loved us! 1 John 4:19.