The preceding days are filled with cleaning and scrubbing the house - sweeping out all 'old Energies' to make room for the new and fresh ones. Orange trees - from small to gigantic sizes - heavily laden with small kumquats are given to friends, business associates, neighbors etc. They always come in pairs and will be placed right and left outside the main door of the house. Bunches of pussy willows are a must in every house as they symbolize the coming of spring and the end of the long cold winter; often they are decorated with Chinese symbols of luck and prosperity - always in red and gold as these colors are associated with exactly that: luck and prosperity! 'ZhuanYin Zhu' - bamboo that invites good fortune - is another auspicious plant. The ability of repeatedly resprouting signifies ongoing business opportunities for the whole year; as numbers play a very important role in Chinese societies, they come in clusters of threes, fives, six or 10 - depending on the meaning one wants to convey to the recipient.
Chinatown shows its most colorful face, stalls brimming with flowers, plants, oranges, big pomelos, barbequed pork slices, cakes and literally thousands of decorations to be hang inside and outside the house...the more the better. Everything carries a symbolic meaning and throngs of young and old are pushing and jostling through the narrow alleys to get the best and most meaningful item for their loved ones. In spite of everyone being squeezed in between tourists, elderly Chinese couples and young families with their toddlers in strollers, the atmosphere is rarely aggressive or tense; instead there is a mood of excitement, optimism and joyous anticipation. Read more in PART 2.
