Good Luck in the Year of the Dragon - Now Give me the Money!

Chinese New Year is upon us. Tomorrow night, the Chinese New Year celebrations will start to celebrate the arrival of the year of the dragon. Out with the rabbit, we're now into the dragon.

Dear friends, I wish you 龙年吉祥, or lóng nián jí xiáng, good luck in the year of the dragon!

Thomas got a hongbao, a red envelope, at school. The little red envelopes contain money (or in Thomas' case a chocolate coin) and are passed around to give each other good luck.

I just learned that the fireworks are used to scare off the evil spirits. Interesting. I knew there had to be a reason to blow a bit of money for some noise and air pollution :-)  

Our house is also appropriately decorated, thanks to our ayi Ms Li. Hopefully the decorations will bring us lots of fortune in the coming year! 

Welcome to 203 Beijing Riviera. The red banners are all supposed to bring in happiness, money, and luck. Hurrah!

Good luck to us.

Lots of money please! 

Seriously, the Chinese are kind of into the "give me money."  One of their New Year's greetings is also "Gōng xǐ fā cái, hóng bāo ná lái", which means "Happy New Year, now give me a red envelope (with money).  :-)

Can these bring good luck too?

Come in! Come in!

In het nederlands: Het jaar van de draak begint maandag. Ons huis is alvast mooi versierd (net als alle Chinese huizen) om al het geluk en geld (!) ons huis in te halen! Wij halen die stroken papier aan het eind van de festiviteiten (over zo'n twee weken) wel weer naar beneden, maar veel Chinezen laten ze gewoon het hele jaar hangen. Dat brengt misschien wel extra veel geluk. Gelukkig nieuwjaar allemaal!