Millions of Chinese Go Home to Celebrate the Family
by Dian Thomas
Chengdu,
China: Every since I have been coming to China as a tour director
people have asked me if I have ever been to their biggest holiday,
Spring Festival. I got the feeling it was big, but until this year I
did not know how big. This year I have been in China and decided to
stay and see what really happens on the Lunar New Year.
The
Lunar New Year started at midnight February 9. I guess if you were
going to compare it with a western holiday, it would be Christmas
Eve. Everywhere I have gone the stores are closed and I think almost
every person has returned home to be with their families. We are as
I write in the 5th day of the holiday and the stores still
have not opened. The newspapers are not being printed.
I
was invited by one of my Chinese guides, Carol Feng, to come to her
hometown, which is Chengdu, to celebrate Spring Festival. Today we
had a dinner with her mother’s family and tomorrow we will have
another dinner with her father’s family. The rest of the week
people visit other relatives, go to the parks and just enjoy being
together with their families.
Carol’s
father said that in the history of China, Spring Festival has always
been a time when everyone returned to be with the family. I was in a
small food market and heard someone speak good English. I
complemented him on his English. He told me that he was from Chengdu
but came home from America to be with his family for the holiday.
Carol
told me that preparing special food and eating together is the most
important part of the holiday. Today Carol’s father was the
cook. We had four generations gathered together. He prepared one
dish for each person. Her father loves to cook so he did all the
shopping and all the preparation of the food. The food was mostly
vegetables, as her grandmother feels that vegetables are the
healthiest food to eat. Because the father cooked, her mother cleaned
up the dishes as the kitchen was only large enough for one
dishwasher.
In
the photograph you can see all the dishes that were prepared. The
part that was most interesting to me was that it only took him about
30 minutes to cook the dishes but it took him three to four hours to
cut up all the vegetables. A Chinese kitchen is very simple. No
fancy machines to do the work. The basics are the same, a butcher
block to cut on, one knife to do all the cutting, a wok to cook in
and a gas fire to heat the wok. A large spatula with an edge on it
is used to stir and measure the ingredients.
After
the dinner, we went out walking and it looked like half the city was
in the park playing together. It is truly inspiring to see a country
of 1 billion 300 million people stop their work and return home for a
week to two weeks to enjoy and celebrate their families.
Want
to Travel to China:
If you are interested in going to China and would like to be in one
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or call her at 801 277 4332.
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Dian Thomas was blessed with the good fortune to be born near and raised in
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where her father was the forest ranger. She took the skills she learned in the
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Easy. Her appearance on the NBC's "Tonight" show with Johnny Carson
boosted her into the national media scene, where she became a regular on
NBC's "Today" show for eight years and then ABC's "Home Show" for six years.
After more than 25 years of media exposure and 19 books, she now shares her
practical insights and wisdom with audiences who want to savor life.
A former Relief Society president, Dian is currently serving as a visiting
teacher. Visit her website at www.DianThomas.com