Kung Hei Fat Choi

Happy Chinese New Year, and welcome to the year of the rabbit!

Being in Asia has given me the opportunity to fulfill a life long dream and take part in a holiday that has always seemed magical to me. Yay! I don't know why but Chinese New Year, or the Lunar New Year has always fascinated me! The lanterns, the coins, the little red envelopes stuffed with money, the dresses and silks, the cherry blossoms, and especially the dragons! Yes, this little white chick from Utah has always wanted to see the Chinese Dragons dance and parade around! Why you may ask? I have no idea, it's just awesome.

There is a hotel on our island called the Marco Polo and it is Chinese owned, so they go all out for this holiday. We dressed the kids up in traditional Chinese costumes and headed to the swanky hotel. After a dinner of pizza eaten poolside, yeah we're cool like that, the drums began and the magic took over!

There were 5 dragons! 4 were the ones you think of, withe the big bearded heads and people inside, and the 5th was a long pink one on poles! The pink one was long and skinny and danced above our heads. The other 4 were covered in sequins and awesome! The firecrackers and parade began outside, and as I tried to make it through the crowd to get to Michelle and the kids the parade moved into the lobby...I got stuck between the sets of doors and for a few minutes I was totally surrounded by dragons! Greatest thing ever!

Coins, real Philippine Pesos, began raining down from above, kids and adults alike scrambled to collect them! The drum beat was infectious and so loud we had to scream to be heard. The man throwing coins right above Brycen and myself really liked the little white boy, and so he made sure I was paying attention so that the coins he dropped would go to him.

The dragons ended on a huge staircase and after the hotel and city people told us "Kung Hei Fat Choi" a dozen women dressed as rabbits (complete with face and teeth painted on) paraded down the stairs with bowls of dressing. A massive assortment of grated vegetables was brought in and the dressing was added. Giant chopsticks, I'm talking 7 foot chopsticks, were provided and the traditional salad was tossed! The rabbits then began passing out samplings of traditional Chinese New Year foods. I tried an orange square of something, a chocolate filled sesame seed ball. There was some kind of chocolate soup, egg rolls, sio mai, and the giant chopstick tossed salad. So awesome! More coins were tossed and the dragons danced around again. (Side note: The guy inside the green dragon was hott!) After the celebration ended we rode a glass elevator to the top of the hotel and saw the entire city, including the LDS Temple.

My love of this holiday is now firmly planted, and I intend to throw the biggest Chinese New Year party Utah has ever seen next year! It's so fun to experience something you've hoped to experience for years! And it's even more fun when it's as magical and beautiful as you dreamed it would be! Cross that off the list, and add something new!