THE YEAR OF THE DRAGON

Hello everyone :)  I have missed everyone and have been off blog land for the longest time. For the whole month of December till mid January 2012, I did nothing but lazed at home. A minor knee surgery forced me to be on the sofa, practically a couch potato forever. I was back to work mid January and then, work got busy, as usual and before long, it's Chinese New Year. So, I thought I'd post this before Chinese New Year is over..which is soon.

I was at the mall recently and thought these words explained clearly the meaning of Chinese New Year, so hope you enjoy it.

When I met some Chinese in the past, at times, they will ask me what year I was born. Maybe a polite way of asking the age. If one is familiar with the zodiac cycles, one can guess accurately the person's age. You can find your zodiac easily from the following chart.

This is the year of the Dragon and I already know a few people keen on having babies, so I wish them good luck. I personally don't think the zodiac year has anything to do with their future or anything else, but there are people have a special or specific preference for this.

Everywhere, there's red. The colour of celebration for the Chinese and when come to Chinese New Year, streets, shops, home and shopping malls are are heavily decorated in red and Chinese themes.

Here's a moongate.

These bonsais should really be at my home :)

More dragon and here is a huge one.

As expected Chinese lanterns everywhere with lots of activities.

Booths featuring many Chinese artists from China. I popped over to check the prices of this one and it was way, way, way over priced!! Think 200 - 300% more than what I would normally pay.

Love this Chinese artist hand painting a child, the details were amazing and so accurate. I wanted to have the girls painted but there was a long waiting list.

More dragons..

Of course Chinese New Year would not be complete unless, one is in a traditional clothing...here are the girls with their cheong sam. One does have to be quite slim to fit into it and look nice...something I'd wish I can too. For me, i love all the details in a cheong sam!

Here's Eli trying on a traditional Chinese dress, complete with head gear. Not free, but I thought it was fun for them to have their pictures taken.

Another dragon, this time made with cane..or wicker..

And, my favourite dragon of all is this calligraphy Dragon!

Have a good day everyone..time to go visiting all my friends now.

Cheers :)