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Happy Chinese New Year! This year IES students studying abroad in China were fortunate enough to celebrate Spring Festival. Chun jie is definitely one of the most celebrated holidays in China. For a week fireworks go off to celebrate the new year, and you see countless fireworks lighting up the Beijing sky. I was able to celebrate the new year with a host family. It was interesting to see how this holiday was spent. First, it is a given that a holiday is not a holiday without lots and lots of food. My host family had stashes of all sorts of goodies piled up on their table, from pumpkin and sunflower seeds, to a variety of assorted nuts, stocks of apples, clementines, lichee, oranges, pears, and baby mangoes, dried plums, candy, crackers, cookies, cake, and drinks. I spent the day with my friend and the host family's daughter playing jianzi, which is a Chinese toy that you pass/kick using only your feet. We ate an early dinner at 4PM, because at midnight, we would eat a special meal of jiaozi (dumplings). We then watched the special New Year's Program on CCTV and got to see some of China's top stars performing. We then made jiaozi (bao jiaozi) with the family. We put 1 mao (a coin) in the dumplings, because it was a tradition to put money in the dumplings and see who would be able to find the most while eating them. I only found one, but it was quite exciting when I did! What was the highlight of the day was lighting up fireworks with the family right before midnight. We walked outside and saw hordes of other families lighting fireworks, too. I felt like I was in a war zone! But it was a thrill to set off these fireworks and jump up and down with everyone, saying, "Chun jie kuai le!" over and over again. It was interesting to see how New Years' was spent in China. The atmosphere was filled with excitement and laughter, and I was glad I was able to take part in celebrating such a festive holiday with a Chinese family, adding all the more to my experience in Beijing. If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed! - Chae-Ri Han, IES Abroad
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