Even though I may have complained about the firecrackers going off at 6 am all week, I really did have a great time here during my first Chinese New Years (Spring Festival) in China. From dinners with local friends, old ladies selling vegetables with whom I struck up conversations, my ayi, and of course, the internet, I learned lots of choice tidbits of interesting info about the New Years, which I’ll pass onto you.

1. Where is everyone?

Shanghai seems empty (hard to believe, I know). This is the one time of year when everyone makes heroic efforts to make it home (check out the train station at 6am for proof). Some of the ChinesePod staff lined up at the train station at 5 am and still couldn’t get tickets home.

2. Why is Chinese New Years on a different day than Western New Years?

Traditionally, they use a lunar calendar (which, interestingly, predates the Gregorian calendar). It is a complex system based on the dates of the new moons and on the degrees of the suns longitude (told you it was complex.). This year included an extra month since it was a leap year. What you really need to know: New Year begins on February 18th for a grand total of 15 days.

3. $$$

The loudest and most spectacular fireworks (during a week of loud and spectacular fireworks) was on Wednesday the 21st, the 5th day of the new year. This is the day to honor the god of wealth, by blowing stuff up as loud as you can!

5. The Year of the Pig

We are leaving a ‘dog year’ and entering a ‘pig year’. Those born in the year of the pig (1923, 1935, 1947, 1959, 1971, 1983, 1995, 2007), including Henry Ford, me, Tenzin Gyatso (the 14th Dali Lama), and Chiang Kai-shek, are sociable and generous, yet humble and simple.

Pigs hold a special place in my heart here in China. When I first moved here I lived in Chongqing, a city with ‘smiling pigs’ for sale in every shop (yup, that photo is a pig face.)

And also, there are a lot of famous Chinese pork dishes, and I just really love pork.

5. Chinese New Years Eats

Speaking of food, Spring Festival is all about the eating. Banquets with family are the main event of the holiday. Each dish is steeped with symbolism - eating whole fish (yu) for example, brings prosperity (also pronounced yu). Get yourself some prosperity by trying this Shanghai recipe for fish. Miss Jenny Zhu told me that to her, dumplings (jiaozi) are the most traditional New Years food. Buy a few, or try this recipe for pork jiaozi yourself (I’ve tried…it’s an ordeal!).

Since the full Chinese New Years doesn’t end until the 4th (even though the city is filling up again now and most people are back to work) I thought now would be a good time to share some of the things I discovered about the holiday. Clearly, one could list a thousand cool things about this holiday — have any more to share? What have been your experiences here during the holiday?

Colleen