Happy Chinese New Year

Well, it's Day 1 of the New Year and I'm already breaking about 50% of the taboos for the New Year holiday according to The China Post's Must-Know List of Taboos for Chinese New Year.

New Year's Eve - I took their warning that everything must be cleaned by this day (including the eldery), especially when coupled with their first item that All brooms, brushes, dusters and dustpans must be put away to mean that no cleaning should be done on this day. I argued with my wife fervently, even showing her the article and quoting from it. She then doomed us by crumpling up the newspaper and throwing it outside on the porch - Trash is treated like treasure, and horded; it should not be taken out of the house. And then we cleaned.

Day 1 - It's early and I've already washed my hair. Looks like I'm in for (another) bad hair year. But on the plus side, I don't see myself killing any animals, giving away meat or eating gruel. No. The last two are pretty much a lock.

If you are not able to purchase or set off fireworks where you live, do what the Taiwanese government encourages you to do: Play their audio file of firecrackers popping. That's right. Firecrackers are dangerous, loud and they create a lot of trash. Play this file and they're only loud - if you have good speakers. The page is only in Chinese. If you must hear this, click on the above link and look for the blue box in the middle-left of the page. Next to it you will see two files with some Chinese characters. Number 1 is 35 minutes of continuous firecracker popping, accompanied with festive music. Number 2 is the same, without the music. 35 minutes of firecrackers. No bottle rockets, roman candles, twisters, or ufos. 35 minutes of listening to smoke bombs would be better.