Lunar New Year’s Eve

Late afternoon on Lunar New Year’s Eve, there are lots of people on the street. 

People are buying big fat geese for family dinner, one of the most important meals of the year.

Others are buying seafood.  “This fish is eight hundred dollars.  That one is one thousand.”  “What do you think?  It is from the sea.  That alone is worth several hundred.”  Any other day, you can probably get that fish for half the money.  But this is New Year’s Eve. Most of the fish mongers are closed already.  One is lucky to find someone still open, with live fish to sell. 

Some are going to the temple to pay back their debts.  Many people go to the temple at New Year to “borrow” from the goddess Kwan Yin, hoping for good fortune during the year.  At the end of the year they have to repay the “debt”.  So that they can borrow again in the New Year.  It does sound logical, doesn’t it.  

It almost looks like a normal Lunar New Year’s Eve.  We all hope that it does return to normal.  Even though, come to think of it, “normal” before the pandemic wasn’t really that good.  It seems people are really desperate now.