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Tonight is the eve of the Spring Festival or commonly known as the Chinese New Year - the most important festival or holiday for the Chinese people. It falls on the 1st day of the 1st lunar month and is celebrated like Christmas for Pinoys. So here are just few facts that I observed for the past years…

1. No meeting with Clients, Consultants, or suppliers. Basically everybody is on vacation for a month or even more.

2. Constructions are also on hold as migrant workers go back to their hometowns.

3. 2 weeks from the festival is the busiest time for transportation systems – the airport, train stations, long-distance bus stations, the subway.

4. Buy your groceries/food a week before the festival. Look what happened to us last Thursday. (That’s when I bought the ingredients for my adobong isaw.)

5. Go shopping few weeks before the holiday or on the day itself. Lots are on sale. Stay away from these department stores on the 2nd day. Their family gatherings are over and time to shop.

Here is a photo of the 12 round fruits we had back home for the New Year, a Filipino tradition, of course. Apples, oranges, mangoes, melon, chico, star apple, ponkan, papaya, pears, guava, grapes & pineapple.

Below is a shortclip (about 25 seconds of our 15 minute clip) of the fireworks view from our penthouse… a 12-year ban on lighting firecrackers was lifted! Above is a photo of Cean taken just an hour ago… it was like we were in a middle of war! Xinnian kuai le! That’s Happy New Year in mandarin…

Hey, check this out! Got this from Chickpeace….

(Shortclip link to be updated.)

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