Updated January 30, 2023
Sorry folks, I started writing this post in Feb, immediately after the Chinese New Year 2021. However, due to my busy schedule, I couldn’t post it. Better late than never. Here we go!
Happy Chinese Near!
It has been a wonderful experience to celebrate the Chinese New Year 2021, also known as the Chinese String Festival.
Let me share with how I celebrated my Chinese New Year 2021 in China.
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Date of Chinese New Year
This year, the Chinese new year was on 12th Feb. 11th Feb was the eve of the Chinese New Year. This is the eve when Chinese people have a big dinner together with their family members.
Cocid-19 Sucks
Due to the risk of Covid-19, we were encouraged not to travel beyond the city borders. I didn’t have any travel plans. Most of my colleagues stayed back as well.
My Boss Had Plans
My boss lives with his family in Shanghai. This year, he also decided to not go back to his hometown (somewhere in Anhui). During one of our group meetings, he suggested to have a New Year Party in the office. We were asked to bring some food. Most of the discussions regarding the organization of the party were in Chinese. So, I wasn’t very sure about the plans. I just knew that we were going to meet on 12th Feb, and have a meal together. A gift exchange program was going to be part of the New Year get-together event. We all were supposed to bring gifts, and then through the random lucky draw, each of us would get a gift.
Frankly, I wasn’t really happy that we need to come to the office during the holidays.
Anyways…
My Chinese New Year Eve: 11th Feb 2021
It was raining throughout the day. It was difficult to go out. Most of the shops and restaurants were closed (this is quite normal in China during the String Festival). Just KFC and McDonald’s were open. I had some personal online work that I kept me busy for most part of the day. I came out for a walk in the afternoon (with an umbrella). I had a quick meal at McDonald’s.
In the evening, I opened CCTV 4/5 and watched the Chinese New Year Gala (春节联欢晚会). Despite living in China for the 4th year straight, this was the first time for me to watch this mega event. I enjoyed it thoroughly.
In Particular, I liked this song.
Meanwhile, as the midnight was approaching, my colleagues were sharing red packets in the WeChat groups. I was too lazy to follow the group messages and couldn’t grab any red packets that night.
Chinese New Year: Morning 12th Feb 2021
This was the start of the New Year. I woke up and read some Chinese learning books (I learn Chinese every day).
About 9.30am, I texted in our official WeChat group to inquire when was the get together. It was at 10am. I felt I was going to be late. Therefore, I rushed to the office. I bought some food at a convenience store and carried along.
Once in the office, I realized that I was quite early. I opened my computer and did some normal computer stuff.
By 11.am, one of my colleague asked me to come to the meeting room.
In the meeting room, I saw my colleagues making dumplings (饺子). Suddenly, I felt I was not Chinese, as I had no clue how to make the dumplings, everyone else knew it so well. 🙂
My boss had ordered food for us. The food started coming.
My boss also joined us in the meeting room. He had also invited members of the other team.
Together, we were about 25 people.
One of the interesting points was a dumpling with a RMB 1 coin. Well, one of the dumplings was stuffed with RMB 1 coin. I learned that anyone who finds the dumpling with the coin would be lucky.
Dumplings were boiled. Then we started eating. There were drinks, cakes, and Chinese food.
Eating and talking. It was a bit noisy as well.
I was talking to one of my colleague who is planning to get married this year. I asked him about his plans to buy a house. He lightly joked to discuss some good thing (buying house means paying loans for about 30 years, so better not to discuss on an auspicious New Year’s day). 🙂
I must mention that there were lots of food. I didn’t even recognize many of the dishes. In particular, I wanted to eat chicken. And a dish looked like chicken dish. I grabbed a few pieces (of chicken). However, it was frog meat. I don’t eat frogs.
After we finished eating, the gift exchange started. I had prepared a 64 GB pen drive. I had wrapped it in a red envelope, and added some personal quotes. I also got a gift.
After the gift exchange was over, drinking session started. I didn’t drink. However, all my colleagues drink during social events. They kept chatting and drinking until 3pm, when I left.
Final Thoughts
It’s great that the Covid-19 pandemic has been successfully contained in China. Social events are now very common. During my previous years, I used to travel during this festive season. However, this year I stayed back. This was the first time that all my colleagues were spending Chinese New Year far from their homes. Celebrating the Spring Festival with my colleague was indeed a memorable event.
