Monday, January 30, 2006

Happy New Year



There are a lot of photos around of the Chinese new year, so I wanted to try to give you a flavour of what it was like to be one of the 200,000 thronging the narrow streets of London's Chinatown, as the dancers performed to the crash of cymbals and drums. This is Lisle Street, many years ago it was full of strange war surplus and electronics stores, but now it has been swallowed up by Chinatown.

I'm guessing, but the dancers appeared to be bringing something to the shopkeepers - luck, maybe?

posted by Ham at 00:02 -- Comments here: 6

Comments on "Happy New Year"

 

Blogger Ham said ... (22:03) : 

Nikhil, thanks for dropping by. Because we don't have NY's free Big Apple Greeters, so if you can afford it think about a
http://www.blue-badge.org.uk/ Blue Badge Guide. If you want to do your own thing (and without knowing what you are interested in) I'd hit:
1) Tower of London then on to
2) The London Eye (youneed to book) after which across the bridge to
3) Westminster, Houses of Parliament & Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, walk up horseguards parade to
4) Trafalgar square then down Jermyn Street to Fortnum & Masons and
5) Tea at the Ritz

 

Anonymous Anonymous said ... (22:05) : 

Yes, I am sure you are correct about the good luck. I remember reading about this once, but the details had become vague. A quick Google turned up some suggestions:

Lai-See Envelopes: (Also called Hong-Bao). They could contain money, although if they were giving something to everyone, then maybe it was just symbolic, as in a Lucky Character: The single word " FOOK ", or fortune.

Links: Celebration of the Chinese New Year, Chinese New Year, BBC Chinese New Year. Even the Mayor of London has a page - About Chinese New Year.

 

Blogger Ham said ... (22:27) : 

Thanks Pamela.... I have to say, I've been "fortuned" in the past, myself ;-)

 

Anonymous Anonymous said ... (02:40) : 

LOL! Yes, I was hoping you'd see the humour, but not think it was just a misspelling. :)

 

Anonymous Anonymous said ... (16:23) : 

Somebody told me they do that in front of shops on the first day of the new year so that business will be be good all year long. But I am not perfectly sure of that.
Julien

 

Blogger clayts said ... (13:46) : 

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Name: Ham Location: London, United Kingdom View my complete profile