New Years is a season here

It was long this year, so I especially enjoyed what I call the New Year’s season. It’s that whole period of time between the January 1st new year and the end of the Chinese new year period (till the 1st full moon after the new year). Last year was leap year, when there’s an extra month, so Chinese new year was really late this year … February 18 was the first day of the golden pig. That means Sunday March 4th, yesterday, was the end of the whole new year season.

I biked the 15 miles from Taipei to Keelung by the ocean on Sunday and now (Monday 9am) people are still popping “good luck” firecrackers. Lots of fireworks up and down the coastline last night. Saturday night there were lots of people milling around at National Taiwan University (NTU) as Paul and I walked from our offices to and from dinner, lots of little gentle, open, delighted Chinese kids with lanterns. I love all that. And the line for tang yuan (gooey sweet balls in sweet soup) at an old fruit and sweet soup shop across from the NTU track went all along the next 3 storefronts, probably over 50 people. I bought tangyuan on Friday night to take home and finished it yesterday morning. I guess that counts for celebrating in that particular way.