Gung Hei Fat Choi

Gung Hei Fat Choi...or Happy New Year!

Yes, I've been talking about this for a while now but that is because it is a really big deal here. For natives, it is christmas, birthday and new year all rolled into one big celebration which spans, to the best of my knowledge, about a 2 week period. The exact timing varies each year depending on the lunar calendar but this year, New Years Day co-incided with Valentines Day, February 14th. A double celebration or just inconvenient timing? Apparently businesses who normally do very well out of the romantic holiday have been hit hard this year. Florists and restaurant owners in particular have suffered as the majority of locals have opted to spend this festive time with their extended family rather than opt for a romantic evening with their significant other at a quiet restaurant. The two holidays, to me, are a world apart and yet, certainly in Hong Kong, this year many had to decide where to place their priorities.

Easy for us of course, as it's just the two of us here and our family celebrated christmas and new year some time ago. We got to enjoy a quiet Valentines Day as a public holiday on the 14th and then on the 15th, Day 2 of the Chinese New Year, with a very special firework display thrown in over dinner. We'd heard a lot about the CNY firework display over the harbour so we booked our harbour-side restaurant table well in advance. We enjoyed a rather over-priced, but tasty meal before pausing midway through for a 20 minute firework display that could not fail to impress. I was particularly happy with the evening because I got to see some great fireworks without any crowds attached...it was all very civilised - just the way I like it :-)

Despite any difficult decisions about who to spend time with on 14th February 2010, surely it has to be a good omen to start the year with a day associated with Love.