Chinese New Year rapidly approaches and we will be celebrating the Eve (on Sunday the 23rd) with a whole bunch of friends and a feast that includes all the symbolic dishes to usher in the New Year. The city is lit up in red, with dragons (for this is the year of the water dragon), fish, and lights galore. We even have a dragon hanging in our living room window, and fish to welcome our guests in on the coat hangar. And our Buddha statue is receiving offerings every day .... though this is just a cross section of my having grown up in Thailand (a little tam boon never hurt anyone) and currently living in China. In China they practice Mahayana Buddhism though it is only 100 million out of the 1.3+ billion that practice it and rarely do you meet a practicing Buddhist in the city (especially post Cultural Revolution which promoted atheism). In any case, this is how we're doing it at our house, we are a big ol' mix of everything in here. I'll post pictures of the feast next week.. in the meantime, Happy 2012 and soon to be Happy Year of the Dragon!
