Happy Chinese New Year!!

This is NOT Isaac's first Chinese New Year...it's his third.  But it is MY first Chinese New Year so I have a lot to learn about my sweet boy's homeland & culture:

National Flag

Great Wall of China

Isaac JianMin!

 

 

     This year, the most significant of Chinese holidays (think Thanksgiving, Christmas & New Years all wrapped up in one day!) starts today, February 9th.  Like most American holidays there are depths of religious & secular meaning and levels of participation to Chinese New Year. Not everyone celebrates the same thing for the same reason, but always on the same day (think Easter: empty tomb of our risen Savior vs. egg-laying bunny). Apparently, the mythical origin of Chinese New Year involves a child-eating dragon roaming through isolated villages, deterred by fresh food put upon the doorsteps of sleeping households and ultimately scared off by the color red. Not exactly a bedtime story for the young-ins, but Chinese New Year's Day is also an occasion for Chinese families to gather for the annual reunion dinner. It is also traditional for every family to thoroughly cleanse the house, in order to sweep away any ill-fortune and to make way for good incoming luck. Windows and doors will be decorated with red colour paper-cuts and couplets with popular themes of "good fortune" or "happiness", "wealth", and "longevity." Other activities include lighting firecrackers and giving money in red paper envelopes (Thank you to wikipedia for that nugget of info).

Imperial Gardens at the Forbidden City

Rickshaws

     The 'problem' with being a multi-cultural but primarily Christian household is finding the balance between "being in the world but not of-it" (Rom 12:2). Child-eating dragons & luck is not what I want to promote to my tender-hearted boy, but neither is the traditional American story of Halloween. In our family we celebrate Harvest Day, a fun-filled day of celebration of God's bounty in our lives, NOT death and ugliness.  Thus...I've chosen to do something similar for Chinese New Year. In our home, Chinese New Year will be a day of celebrating the rich Chinese culture and the life it has brought into our family. Chopsticks! Red lanterns! Noisemakers! And Dim sum!   I'm looking forward to seeing how this day evolves as our family evolves. Practicing eating Ramen-n-cheese with training chopsticks & building the Great Wall with blocks this year, may be a full-on Chinese feast & language lessons in International District in coming years. I'm excited to see what this day brings!

     So Happy Chinese New Year to my little China boy and to all our Chinese friends (especially Isaac's Adoption Cousins!). May this next year be FULL of God's goodness and blessing as this last (lunar) year as been for us!

"Made in China. Loved in America"