Chinese New Year, Wall Family Style

Here at the Wall compound, we practice a lot of just-in-time processes:  just-in-time supper, just-in-time Halloween costumes, just-in-time get the dogs outside to pee (well, not always “in time”).  Last night we added a new trick to our just-in-time portfolio:  Just-in-Time Chinese New Year.

At about 7:30 last night, I realized the next day (today) would be Chinese New Year.  I knew it was coming, I just didn’t really get how soon it was coming.

In the course of 15 minutes, Rachel and I:

• located the box of Chinese New Year decorations
• colored the Kitchen God
• unearthed the Fourth of July poppers
• decorated the house and hung the couplets on the front door.

I almost thought to just let it all go, but I was surprised how fast it all came together. Once all the decorations were out, there were only two things to do:  set off the poppers outside and sent off the Kitchen God.

For the past couple of years, we’ve used these benign popper things that you throw on the ground and they make noise.  It passes for fireworks, and I can buy them cheap at Target before the 4th of July.  I usually get a couple of boxes, the girls and I fling these poppers on the driveway, stomp on the poppers that don’t explode immediately, and yell “GongXi” (“congratulations).  It lasts about 5 minutes, especially if it’s cold.
It was -4F at the time we were making noise outside last night, and it took about 7 minutes.  Our record is -8F and 3 minutes.

John had arrived home from practice by this time, and was witness to our rituals.  In previous years, he’s never been around to see what we do on the eve of Chinese New Year.  He had lots of questions, and most of the time looked very confused.  Especially when I lit the Kitchen God on fire in the sink.  But he did help air out the kitchen so our fire alarms wouldn’t go off.

Today, we all wore red, and we actually ate Chinese food for supper.  Usually we go get Mexican, because, well, we’re weird.  We eat Chinese on Cinco de Mayo.  Sarah sings Christmas Carols at Easter.  So we broke tradition for the first time.  I think we’ll all live.

So goodbye, Year of the Tiger, and hello Year of the Rabbit.  May your year be as soft, fuzzy, and warm as a bunny.