Could it be, for the first time in history, we will have a silent Chinese New Year?! Sounds preposterous to me! Normally for a couple of months beforehand, there are nightly lion dance practices with their drum beats and rolls just a stone's throw from our abode. People also get itchy fingers and "practice" lighting off a firecracker here, a whistler there, in anticipation of "letting loose" on Chinese New Year's Eve.
This Covid-19 year through, the song "Silent Night" seems appropriate; every night blissfully quiet. Oh, except for tonight, we did hear a few trial bangs, pops and whooshes. Ha, ha!
Guess there will be some noise.
The joy of it all can not be suppressed, Covid or no Covid; lockdown or no lockdown. Family reunions will be smaller but still we do what we can -- even "zoom" gather. Hearts can still be 'knit' together even from a distance; exuberance levels muted a couple of notches lower, yet still vibrant and buzzing.
Chinese New Year songs resonate in the background; food flourishes in abundance on groaning tables, and adds girth to waists; children run amok, ever hopeful of thick 'ang pao' (little red envelops stuffed with money gifts) and stretch the sanity of mothers and fathers and their Chinese New Year leniency potential, maxing it out; and excited, happy adult voices blend and combine to create a choral cornucopia, on the canvas of family.
It's not so quiet after all.
"Hey, let's go light off some firecrackers!"
HAPPY CHINESE NEW YEAR, EVERYBODY!!
~ERC February 2021~
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