The Eve of Chinese New Year

     Who's this old fellow below?  A Chinese Father Christmas?  Kind of.  He's the God of Prosperity, wandering the Petronas Towers shopping center handing out candies.  That mall also had the gaudiest, goldest dragon stage you could ever imagine.  It was huge and people stopped on the first, second and third floors to take pictures of it, including me!  I think during the performances, something comes out of the drum below the dragon.


    I saw something in the paper today about various customs (or actually superstitions) that are observed by the Chinese (at least the ones in Malaysia) at this season.  For example, you're not supposed to wash your hair for the first few days after Chinese New Year -- it's something about not washing out the good luck.  For the same reason, you're not supposed to sweep or dust the house in the early days of the new year.  All of that is to be done before the event, just like in Japan.  Today, in fact, "the boys" (actually grown yardmen with families of their own, probably) were busy, busy, BUSY giving our condominium some end-of-the-year finishing touches.  They were painting the walls around the complex, bleaching the sidewalks and lots of other nice extra things.

    As is always the case here in Penang, the hotels get into the act in a big way, and our favorite, the G Hotel, had done one of the best lobby displays I've seen so far.  And here it is!


    














      So, where do all these decorations come from?  Well, some are done on-site, like the lobby of the G Hotel, where they went to incredible lengths to make things red. (You're not supposed to wear black or white, and everyone tries to wear red or gold, even if it's underwear!) Anyway, here they are at the G, changing the lobby lights from white to red.

    And ordinary people and shopkeepers?  Well, they evidently go to shops like this one to buy their festive decorations.


    It's all very different from the mostly-subdued way the Japanese decorate for their New Year's celebrations.  But you've just gotta love them all, not only because they're beautiful, but because of all the love and excitement that goes into holiday preparations, whatever the country.