Tag: Chinese New Year (page 1 of 1)

HELLO, February

Hello, February. I’m not sure how you arrived so quickly? January has kept us busy beyond measure, so I somehow wasn’t expecting you quite yet, but we’re happy that you are here! And on this first day of your reign, you have ushered in with you the Lunar New Year. The Year of the Tiger. May it be a year that brings good fortune and luck to us all. 

We’re keeping our fingers crossed that you continue to bring chilly days and maybe, just maybe a snowy day. We’re ready for hot chocolates with marshmallows and whipped cream on slow Saturday afternoons while we watch old movies. We’re ready for more chances to catch our breath while lingering at the table when dinner is over listening to music. 

We’re ready for the celebration of L-O-V-E that you herald in this month and all the red, white and pink that colours our world with a rosy hue. We’re ready for pancakes for dinner on frosty nights and copious amounts of tea and the chance to be still and read. We’re ready to continue relishing in the season of winter when all is quiet at night and we can hear the foxes crying out under the stars. 

We’re ready for all that you have to offer. Welcome! 

{Lore Pemberton, The Quilter’s Cottage, Found HERE | Pinned HERE}

Year Of The Ox

Happy Lunar New Year!

May this year bring us all good fortune!🧧


About this pattern: “For this design, we took inspiration from the Eastern styles prevalent in the Aesthetic Movement, as referenced by the Geffrye Museum’s 1890 drawing room. Lucky Lantern features tasseled Chinese lanterns, decorated with pine, plum and bamboo – known as Suihan Sanyou, or the Three Friends of Winter. These three symbols – 松竹梅 (sĹŤng zhĂş mĂ©i) – are revered in Eastern culture, as they flourish in cold weather, and therefore symbolise strength in adversity.” – Mini Moderns

{Image: “Lucky Lantern” pattern in Harvest Orange found via Mini Moderns // Pinned HERE}

A Great Fortune

I love this little cartoon. It just makes me smile. I can’t believe this weekend signals the last weekend in January. How can this be? How can January have gone by in a puff of smoke, like a magician’s trick?

This weekend brings with it a chance to hopefully catch our breaths from a hectic week and get a few things done around the house. Mainly taking down our Christmas decorations. Shhh! Don’t tell anyone that they’re still up. I just love seeing those twinkling lights, bathing the room in a cozy glow when it’s cold outside and still gets dark early. But, it’s time. We’re ready for everything to look refreshed.

And last, but not least, this weekend also brings with it the Chinese New Year celebrations and I’m very excited! So homemade pork dumplings and Chinese one-pot steamed chicken, vegetables and jasmine rice are on the menu.

Here’s to the weekend, long may it last!

{Found HERE // Pinned HERE}

The Lion Dance

Jennifer Michie Lion Dance 1

Chinatown is an area I criss-cross through often when I’m traveling here and there in London. Yesterday, while going to pick up a goat good luck charm for the Chinese New Year, we happened upon the lion dance.

Jennifer Michie Lion Dance 2Jennifer Michie Lion Dance 3

This is one of my favourite things to see! Every year, usually by chance, we come across this tradition being performed. There are two performers inside of the costume (which is how you know it is a lion and not a dragon dance) and they go from door to door performing “cai qing” which translates to, “plucking the greens”. The lion dances around the doorway where the greens are hung, moving cat like backwards and forwards, or bending low as if hunting prey and slowly works his way up to pulling the greens down.

Occasionally we’ve seen a shop put out oranges on a small table to which the lion happily gobbles up. Yesterday one store on the second floor placed their greens, tied to a stick, out through the window. The acrobatic team worked with each other, standing on shoulders and stretching the lion’s neck, they plucked the greens from the second story window, to the delight of all of us below. There was a lot of cheering.

Jennifer Michie Lion Dance 4Jennifer Michie Lion Dance 5

As we headed out through the gates, the Hippodrome Casino was handing out fortune cookies to advertise their business. Unfortunately, the fortune inside wasn’t a fortune, but was another form of advertisement for a big gaming event. But, Mr. Michie didn’t know that, he only saw the side written in Mandarin.

I told him it was I good thing that I could read Mandarin, to which he just stopped and looked at me with raised eyebrows. With a smile, he asked me what the fortune said, to which I replied that it said: “Help! Help! I’m trapped in a fortune cookie factory!” to which we both busted out laughing.

That is a very old joke, but it never gets old! When we were little and would go out for Chinese food with my grandparents and it came time for the fortune cookies to be passed out, we would go around the table and everyone would read their fortune. My Grandpa, would always say:, “Oh, No! You’ll never believe this, my fortune says: Help! Help! I’m trapped in a fortune cookie factory!” to which everyone around the table would bust out laughing and there would be a short pause while my sister and I puzzled this one out for a second! He was a great teaser!

Oh, to be little again! I’m happy that we had the good fortune to see the lion dance again this year, it is always magical to share in this experience.

Jennifer Michie Lion Dance 6