A Jouany to Taipei
Two weeks ago, I flew back to Taiwan, my sweet home, for my short five-day vacation to celebrate the Chinese New Year with my family. My younger sister got married last Oct, so this Chinese New Year was the first one we celebrated without my sister. For eastern-Asian people, family gathering and sharing their happiness during the Chinese New Year is one of the most important customs.
It’s not easy to do too many things in five days. The first day was New Year’s Eve. Most families worship their forefathers. My family did just that. We prepared lots of nice food to share with our forefathers spiritually. Also, we prepared some meaningful poetic sentences, wrote on red papers, then posted them on doors to bring some luck and newness to the New Year. Then finally, the family sits together to have a super luxurious New Year’s Eve dinner. Usually the elders would prepare some money, put it in the red envelopes and give them to younger kids to show their appreciation for the children’’s nice behaviors during the past year. That’s the most exiting time for kids. Although I am not a child anymore, my father insisted to give me the red envelope. That warmed my heart and also revealed my father still think I am a kid in his mind.
The first day of the New Year is a very busy day of this time. Everyone has to either call or visit tons of relatives and friends to share the happiness of the New Year. My father was pretty busy on the phone that day. I was very busy on another web 2.0 style. I spent a whole day on messenger chatting with my friends, cousins, and The second day is a big day. Married daughters come home to visit parents and brothers. This New Year was my younger sister’s first time doing this. Though she has visited my parents very often, I guess this was still a very meaningful moment for her. We went to a very nice restaurent with my sister and her husband. After lunch, they came to my parents house, and chatted a whole afternoon.
The third, forth, and fifth days were very plain. At third and forth days I visited some of my high school classmates and spent some time at book stores. For business and corporations, the fifth day is the day to begin work again. For me was time to fly back to New York.
This was a very short trip, I almost had no time to do anything besides participated in the family gathering. But I finished my most important task: to spend time with my parents. For me it was a heart-warming trip.