恭 喜 发 财- gong xi fa cai (Chinese Happy New Year)

Hell, Thomas and I just spent the weekend with friends celebrating the Chinese New Year. New Years Eve was on Saturday night and is traditionally a 'reunion' time for friends and family - you gather together and eat special food and enjoy everyone's company.  We had a lovely night and the house was decorated in beautiful red and gold lanterns, wall hangings, cracker drops and coins.  Before we went up there I read up about Chinese New Year and so I made the door hanging in the picture left.  The characters are for "Fu" meaning Good luck.  On New Years you hang the Fu symbol on the door upside down meaning "Luck has arrived". I loved the idea so I rushed out to a local store that I had seen had a shipment of Chinese Silk Jaquards, and sewed up a simple square with the Fu symbol appliqued on.  Was the first time I have appliqued anything so Im quite proud of it.  Our friends loved it. They didnt have a door hanging so it fit in perfectly. 

I also made some Red Envelopes for the children - another New Years tradition (also in the picture).  The red envelopes are given to children, unmarried relatives, friends, employees (as a bonus) etc and hold money. The money doesnt have to be huge amounts but it must be in an even number (ie multiples of 2) and must not have the number 4 in it - so no $4, $14 etc. This is because the number four in chinese sounds like the same sound as 'death' when they say it. So its very bad luck.

For me personally, I feel like this New Year is actually my real New Year.  For some reason, our Australian New Year - while it was fun cause we spent it with friends, didnt actually feel like the start of a new beginning like it normally does. Im not sure why.  This Chinese New Year has felt like a new beginning to me. Possibly because of my changing job situation and stuff. I am looking forward to having a spectacular year and it feels like its really beginning now. My mood is high and happy, Im as relaxed as Ive been in years, everything is going right and well. Its just a great feeling of happy optimism and freedom.  Im enjoying it.

So Gung hay fat choy to you (thats how you pronounce it and it means 'may you become prosperous'.)

Oh and if you would like a tutorial on how to do the door hanging just let me know. I took pictures just in case!

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