Kung hei fat choy!

Lunar New Year is the most important of Chinese holidays, a time when families gather together and try to violently settle grudges that have been passed down through the generations -- if my upstairs neighbors are any indication. I awoke on the third day of the new year to sounds of screaming and stomping above me, which gives credence to the Chinese belief that only the first and second days of the new year are appropriate times to visit kin. By the third day, you're full of fried food and weary of your relations and their idiosyncracies, and arguments and caged death matches and a battle between the Three Storms and Wing Kong are more likely to ensue.

It's also the magical season when confused foreigners are introduced to the concept of lai see. It's a custom of giving red envelopes filled with a small amount of "good luck" money to... well, it can take a while to figure that out, and you're bound to commit at least one faux pas.

At the office, bosses pass out the envelopes to subordinates, and married employees give them to unmarried colleagues. It's like graduating to the adult table at Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner. Once you're married, you can say goodbye to your lai see (unless a generous relative or friend chooses to give you one) but you're expected to dole it out to almost everyone who is still unmarried, and you give two packets to each person (one from each spouse). Unmarried people typically give only to service workers and kids.

How much to give? It depends on your status and the status of the person receiving the lai see. A HK$10, HK$20 or HK$50 bill is usually a sufficient token, but it has to be a new, crisp bill to demonstrate your consideration to the recipient. In the weeks leading up to the new year, people either preorder new notes from the banks or stand in long lines to get fresh bills that are printed for the holiday.

To avoid offending anyone, it's common to carry an assortment of envelopes with varying denominations in case you bump into someone. You don't want to be embarrassed if someone gives your son a lai see and you have nothing to give in return.

Stores also give out lai sees to customers, but instead of money, you get, say, a coupon for HK$5 off your next purchase of a bird's nest and harsmar crystal jelly drink.

Although Hong Kong is not predominantly Christian, they go all out for Christmas because, I guess, Jesus and Santa are cooler than an ox or a rat. Or because they haven't figured out a way to repackage and commerciaize it for global consumption like the West has with our holy day. So, Lunar New Year decorations tend to be more low-key.

The tourist highlights of the holiday in Hong Kong are the flower market in Victoria Park, where people go to buy orange trees (for good luck) and inflatable meat on a stick, and the Cathay Pacific night parade, where people go to watch floats blasting music from the "Grease" soundtrack and carrying the message that pirated goods are very, very bad.

This is a video from a lion dance at the Man Mo Temple, not far from my apartment.



And these are photos from the 2008 and 2009 Lunar New Year celebrations.