Xin Nian Kuai Le

[la_belle_laide]

The Year of the Tiger starts with a bang, literally. OMG, I mean the confetti tubes or whatever they're called. You twist them and BANG, it makes a loud noise and all these streamers and confetti fly out of it. I love those things. I bought one years ago when I went with a group of people, and no one wanted to set it off with me. So, I brought my old one back to Chinatown today, and set it off. It was so old, I didn't know if it would even still work, but it did.

You in the back, snickering like a twelve year old brat. Yeah, you. *Giggle*

ANYway. The Gold Dragon and I didn't get to Chinatown until around 12:30, which is a fine enough time to arrive. And, just like I remembered from a few years ago, it's insanely crowded like Times Square on western New Years (or not, since I've never been there and don't really want to.) It's noisy, but good noisy, like with firecrackers, festival drums, and confetti tubes going BANG every few minutes. Confetti and streamers cover the streets and fill the gutters. Vendors are yelling about their prices (that's in Chinatown; on the walk there all you here is, "Rolex, Rolex, Rolex, Rolex..." from just about every guy on the street.) It smells yummy underneath all the car exhaust, like incense and Chinese food. Goods are cheap, but not as cheap as they could, or should be. You can get all this stuff online for much cheaper, and actually, you can probably get it cheaper in Chinatown on any day that isn't the New Year. And it's cold as hell. Even at 40 degrees today, it was just freaking bitingly cold.

We walked around, went into the weapons shops, herb shops, some kitsch (yes, and I bought some,) and finally we went to the temple on Bowery street.

Inside the temple, there was no space to even breathe, I mean people are packed in here like confetti into those tubes, and you could hardly see the Buddha by the entrance for the incense in the air. But, we took some incense anyway—three sticks each—lit them, and brought them up to the Buddha statue. Then we planted them into the dish of sand (hundreds of sticks burning all at once,) and squeezed our way past the shrine. Before going into the actual main hall (what is that called inside a temple? I have no idea,) you can put a donation in a box and take a fortune scroll. I wanted to, but I was nervous about it. Some of them are bad. A good friend of mine got a bad one, one year. It said something like "black times ahead" or something ominously terrible like that, and soon after, he lost his father. I can't deal with anymore of this loss, but I wanted a fortune anyway. I put in my donation, and took one. Then I put another donation and took one for my Mom. Gold Dragon took one, too (actually he is a Tiger, and this is his year,) then we went into the main temple room to read them. His was good. Mine was excellent! I don't want to write exactly everything it said, but it was nice, heartening, and mentioned "working day and night" on some project. My Mom's was also excellent. I was more than just relieved!

In this room they have a famously HUGE Buddha on a lotus. This room wasn't nearly as crowded as the entrance. In fact, there were very few people in this section; I don't know why. We sat in the chairs against the wall for a while until the Gold Dragon said, "Do you mind if I go up to it?" I told him of course I didn't. And, he knows how to do all this ceremonial stuff, which kind of surprised me but then again didn't, because of the Bai Shi ceremony (the black belt / adoption ceremony in Kung Fu, a few years ago.) After him, I went up next and I thought, "Two atheists or agnostics or whatever. This is weird." But I'm also lately really into asking the universe for stuff that I want, right? So I thought, what could it hurt. That's what everyone else is doing up here today. "It's the new year, please give my family health and wealth this year. Please give us prosperity, happiness, success." Which, hell yes, please! Right? And I was thinking, "I should focus on, how about, no more death? How about a hugely long reprieve from any kind of fresh grief? How about success, how about an agent who is awesome, how about a book deal, how about, how about, how about..." But once I got up there, it just felt so nice being there, in Chinatown, in this cool looking temple and all I could think of was, "This is a beautiful day. Whatever sentience is in the universe, even if it's just consciousness, well, thanks for this day."

I went back to sit next to Gold Dragon and he said, "I didn't want to ask for anything for myself. You know?" Then I thought, Well maybe that's how everyone feels today. Maybe everyone is going up there with their incense, oranges, Canola oil (??) and other offerings and they're just thinking, "Wow, this is cool. I'm grateful." He said, "It's nice in here. I want to hang out here for a while." So we did, in silence for a few minutes.

Then we went upstairs to the gift shop (a gift shop in a temple, I know.) We bought cool bead bracelets and I bought one for my Mom. For Mom I got the one that said "Peace, Joy, Nirvana" and for me I got "Unexpected Miracles." I wondered aloud what miracle I would get, then decided that would kind of make it not unexpected.

Before we left Chinatown, we got another one of those confetti bombs, and I bought one for Boychild, too. He can set it off on his birthday next week, if he wants to. :) Gold Dragon and I went outside and spent a good five minutes trying to figure out how the hell to twist it so it would fire. All the while, this couple watched us with a camera at the ready (that's what you do, you take pics of people setting off their confetti bombs.) The lady was funny, she kept gesturing like, "Let's move this along, okay?" I asked her if she would take a picture when we stopped being too stupid to figure it out, and set it off. She obliged me and we finally did make it work. It was COOL. And I have pictures!

Absolutely NO assaulting.


Don't be standing there!




Streamers, confetti, and lion/dragon/tiger dances:











I see you in there!


Here, someone on the sidewalk had set their confetti-bomb off; you can see it in the background.




Wee little dragons!



Very peaceful inside the temple; very bright outside of it.





BANG! Confetti bomb!







Then, we had pizza and headed home. (THE LONG WAY.)

Note to future self: After Penn, take the 1 train right to Canal street, and remember you don't just pop up out of nowhere in the middle of China Town. You have to walk there. Follow the confetti. The Temple is on Bowery street. Sometimes the subway skips where you want to go on the way back. Get off as close to 34th as you can SO THAT YOU DO NOT HAVE TO WALK FROM 50TH TO 34TH. And yes, New Years in Chinatown is as fun as you remember it being.

Xin nian kuai le, to everyone on my f-list, to everyone who has friended me, and friends of friends also, and your families. It's the Tiger year, so go out and have a fun year, and be STRONG. :D

Comments

[malenka-zeut.livejournal.com]

Great pics and great story. I'm jealous! Glad you had a good day, and got to feel grateful in the temple- where better, right? I have discovered that however trite or Oprah it may sound to people, I feel so happy when I'm feeling grateful for a moment that is beautiful, and it sounds like you had reasons to be genuinely grateful. Oh, and you look great. Love the coat. Here's to the year of the Tiger, the year I wanted to be and pretended to be when I was a kid and we got the place mats at the Chinese restaurant. I'm really just a pig ;-)

[shonagonchan.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much! Oh, my poor coat, it's old and nearly done for. no more buttons, but I love it. The lining is electric blue. You wanted to be a tiger? Aww. I always liked being a rat for some reason.

I'm really just a pig

At the end of the day, aren't we all? ^_^

[labricoleuse.livejournal.com]

Wow, that is a big long...er, firecracker he has there.

Love all the dragons!

[shonagonchan.livejournal.com]

LMAO, we took a look at that picture and cracked up. How can you not, look at how those things are made. I think they do that on purpose. :)