A Poets View

Chinese New Year in Hong Kong is a festive and meaningful occasion.  Tradition dictates that you enter the new year with a clean home.  Families tend to cleaning and sprucing up their homes getting ready for the  new year to enter.   I remember while in Hong Kong in 2005,  in my high rise hotel room getting ready for an evening out I saw many people on the roofs of apartment buildings cleaning and sweeping the roofs.  At the time I did not know about this tradition.

On the streets of Hong Kong and Kowloon you will find hundreds of people walking around at any given time.  The hustle and bustle along the streets lends to the excitement of this cosmopolitan city.  I was lucky enough to be in Hong Kong during the lunar new year in 2005.  We had made reservations at the Lobby Lounge in the InterContinental Hotel in Tsim Sha Tsui to see the fireworks and reserve a table for Sony Holland’s jazz performance that same evening.  I left my hotel to walk over to the IC Hotel and found that the streets walking towards the waterfront were completely empty.  I wondered why it was so quiet.  I thought maybe something had happened and the streets were cleared.  It wasn’t until I walked farther down Canton Road to see that in fact the streets were cleared and many blocked in order to accommodate all the people who were going to the waterfront to see the fireworks.  There were literally hundreds and hundreds of people in that area.

I finally made it to the lobby lounge.  Sony and I watched the New Year fireworks display and we were blown away.  The colors, the majesty, the spectacular sights and sounds including traditional Chinese music was indescribable.  I had never in my life seen such a celebration of light and life.  The evening was topped off with drinks and another spectacular performance by Sony Holland and her Hong Kong band.  Not only was it Chinese New Year, it was also my birthday so cake, some bubbly and good friends ended the perfect evening.

One of the many highlights of Chinese New Year is walking along the streets to find families out eating together, playing games such as mahjong and the little ones dressed to the nines in vividly colored satin fabrics.  They were all so cute.  The scent of baked yams and roasted chestnuts permeated the air.  It was something I will never forget and hope to get back there soon to experience it all at least one more time.