Op-Ed Contributors
Spring Festival through foreigners' eyes
(China Daily)
Updated: 2010-02-12 07:56
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Festival with capital Fs
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(By Grayson Clark, an international consultant based in Beijing)
If you have not been to China and will not in the next couple of days, chances are you will not understand what a big event Spring Festival is. Before I came to China in 2006, I had a vague idea it was something to do with bright red lanterns and special food. Little did I know that collectively it could be described as the world's biggest annual party. It certainly is the greatest annual migration on the planet, dwarfing anything seen on the plains of Africa. So, for those new to China, here is what Spring Festival means to me - and almost all of them begin with the letter 'F'.
First, it is for families. One of the downsides of China's remarkable progress is the number of children rural parents have left at home with their grandparents to work in cities and other provinces. Spring Festival is that joyous time when parents and children are reunited and the bonds of parenthood reasserted. However hard the journey back home is, it is a time to treasure.
Next, it is for friends. Only slightly below the family in importance, old friends are whom most people visit during the days after the new year. For young people, it's a great chance to catch up with old school friends who for the other 51 weeks of the year may be scattered far and wide across China.
The next 'F' is for food. Spring Festival is the greatest culinary event on the planet. It's true, these days many people eat out on lunar new year's eve and the ready meal concept (heaven help us!) is threatening to make its way even to new year's eve dinners at home. But talking to my colleagues, I was happy to know that many of them will still help their mothers and grandmothers cook a variety of dishes they don't have the time or inclination to do at other times of the year. Therefore, Spring Festival can be regarded as the ultimate safeguard for China's family culinary traditions.
Even if the above pass you by, you can't escape the next big 'F'. Spring Festival is the biggest fireworks event outside, well, the Olympics! The number of fireworks let off on our compound in two thinks, I think, exceeds what we saw at London's millennium celebrations a decade ago. Of course last year the pyrotechnics got a little out of hand. Hopefully, people will take more care while driving out evil spirits this year. But all said and done, fireworks are the most spectacular part of the whole event.
The next 'F' is stretching it a bit. Spring Festival should signal the end of winter. The first year we were here, it certainly did as the mercury climbed to a balmy 15 C. But in 2008 and this year this 'F' unfortunately stands for the big freeze.
But, for me, the two most important 'F's are "freedom" and "fun". For a week or two, or even three, people can be free of routine work, because they have something more important to think about. And if we can't have "fun" during Spring Festival when can we have it? To all our readers, especially newcomers to China, I wish a very happy Chun Jie.
