Chinese New Year 2008

The Temple is closed for Chinese New Year so we have had some time to play. Last night we thought we would have dinner at Chilli's. As we walked to the train it was apparent that most shops were closed. The traffic was much lighter; it is a tradition to go home for a family dinner so the streets are about empty. The few people we did see were burning play money so their ancestors will have money in heaven. Sometimes they burn cardboard cars and houses to accommodate family members. We found Chilli's and they were closed so we had our big New Years Eve dinner at McDonalds.

Arnie Chen invited us along with Pres. and Sis. Walker, Pres and Sis Nielson, and his parents to go to The Hyatt Hotel for the Lion Dance. Afterward he took us to Holiday Inn for dinner.
The dinner was about 12 courses; including beef, fish, pork, ham, some kind of sausage, duck (in a crepe roll), chicken, shrimp (whole) plus shrimp (diced in a lettuce roll up) plus some vegies., coconut geletin desert, tripe soup, some kind of noodle, a fruit tray. The drink--grape or orange juice. No rice!!! He would not let us help pay the bill; all this on church salary.
At the Lion Dance 5 strings of huge firecrackers; 2 stories high (doubled) were set off together. The noise was unbearable. Arnies Mother covered her Grandsons ears; I was standing right behind her so I lifted the hood of her coat and used my fingers to hold the hood against her ears and used my to cover my ears.

We have some pictures now so we will include pictures and brief descriptions.

This is Arnie Chen and wife JenJen and son Samuel; with his parents. The father was in the army and came to Formosa with Chiang Kai-shek thinking they would be able to return to China.
They were never able to return so he has a wife in China. He married here and Arnie is one of the children from this marriage. Arnie was quite a wild teenager; with bad hair, earrings, bad language and attitude. The Elders met him at 7-11 and he joined the church; his change for the better was so profound his parents had to find out how a church could change him so much. They also joined the church. That is the power of the gospel fully lived.


This is President and Sister Nielson, the Mission President, and their two daughters in the middle. They had 6 children of their own and then felt inpressed to adopt Mary, a little Chinese baby who was orphaned! She finds it a little hard here, because everyone expects her to speak Chinese, but she grew up in USA and so is just learning Mandarin now! He was an Emergency room doctor in Vernal for many years, ending up the last four years in Monticello, before he was called as Mission President! Wonderful people!

Ty and Spencer, this is for you!! These are the Lion Dance
drummers; they were worth going to the lion dance for. They were as one in every movement. Every Chinese performance I have seen has been outstanding. In Malaysia I saw gymnasts do unbelievable stunts.

Firecracker strings were hanging behind these pillars; five strings, doubled. Each firecracker was about the size of my thumb. I have never heard such a loud noise; it was unbearable; every one was covering their ears.

The Lion dancers are two young men with a lion costume over them, one at the head and one at the rear. They do a lot of parading around and then the front guy gets on the back guys shoulders like the lion is roaring on his hind legs. Then they jump on pedestals about 4 feet apart and jump from one to the other.



This is a bad picture of the pedestals. All the other pics. are so blurry we could not use them.
but you can see the pedestals on the left edge. There were a long double line of them, at different heights, that the "lion" would hop to, sometimes doing double hops at a time! When he reached one end of them, he would throw candy to the children, then turn around and hop back to the other end and throw more candy! The kids were delighted!

Carrie, remember my brother, Gary's, string instrument that I let you take to show your piano students? The middle instrument here looks a lot like it, except this one is sooo long! With a flute and the instrument on this end, which sounds like a violin, they make up the very Chinese sounds of most music here!

Dragon dancers, hopping in and out and through, a 30-40 foot "dragon"! Boy! they worked hard! They had to move the dragon and hop over it at exactly the right time or they would have messed up the whole dance!


Arnie, Jen, Samuel and the masked, Chinese man, who walked around with a large, golden bowl full of candy for all to take!

Us, Jen and Arnie's parents at the Hyatt Hotel waiting for the Lion Dance to begin!


The whole group, with President and Sister Walker on the left of Dad and I, along with Arnie's parents! What a pleasant day together! These are choice people whom we get to associate with!