On Friday, our team joined millions of people around the world to celebrate the Chinese New Year (known as the Lunar New Year outside of China). The Chinese New Year ushers in the Spring Festival, which lasts 15 days in the country of our children’s birth.
For two weeks, Chinese families don reds and golds and feast and celebrate and gather together around family tables (causing what I’ve read is the world’s largest migration of people each year). They light fireworks and gift red envelopes and eat traditional meals (including long noodles to help offer “long life”), and for two weeks, they completely refrain from crying, breaking dishes, wearing black or white, using scissors (even for haircuts), lending or borrowing money and even visiting the hospital (clearly, our team would fail).
Although we won’t be honoring all these traditions (on the first day of Chinese New Year, you can’t wash your hair, sweep or take out the garbage, which means I “swept away” all my good luck for the year by the time my children woke up for breakfast), this year, we wanted to be intentional about celebrating the first culture of two of our superheroes.
It’s Superhero 4’s first Chinese New Year outside his home country, and it’s Superman’s first Chinese New Year while in school. What’s more, 2018 is the Year of the Dog, and after saying goodbye to our sweet puppy in November, it seemed like an appropriate time to celebrate.
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