Bah humbug!

Yes, another year just came around. I know, it’s time to party and all that. Drink champagne, kiss beautiful strangers in public places, make untenable resolutions, freeze your underwear off waiting for the bus back home …

Bah humbug I say! Western New Year is just a fiction of a particular calendar, nothing more. It’s an administrative convention, a convenience required by a state apparatus that tries to keep track of birth years and tax years and assorted other statistics. You might as well celebrate the promulgation of new tariffs for steel imports!

Chinese New Years is a totally different thing. It is not a matter of bureaucratic convenience. The Chinese New Year is not controlled by the state but by the moon. And you get to eat lots of dumplings and play mah jang. This is why I’m saving my cheers for February 6th.

However, my very favorite New Year is not the Chinese but the Thai — known as Songkran. It’s in April, in the hot season, and everyone gets out on the streets and sprays water on each other. Now that’s what I call a party! After all, what is kissing a beautiful stranger compared to completely soaking him/her in water?

Btw, this was apparently the last year they did fancy fireworks on Taipei 101 (see clip above). By next New Year this won’t be the tallest building in the world anymore and Sony — who sponsors the thing — will take its money elsewhere. Good riddance, I say.

Bah humbug!

Yes, another year just came around. I know, it’s time to party and all that. Drink champagne, kiss beautiful strangers in public places, make untenable resolutions, freeze your underwear off waiting for the bus back home …

Bah humbug I say! Western New Year is just a fiction of a particular calendar, nothing more. It’s an administrative convention, a convenience required by a state apparatus that tries to keep track of birth years and tax years and assorted other statistics. You might as well celebrate the promulgation of new tariffs for steel imports!

Chinese New Years is a totally different thing. It is not a matter of bureaucratic convenience. The Chinese New Year is not controlled by the state but by the moon. And you get to eat lots of dumplings and play mah jang. This is why I’m saving my cheers for February 6th.

However, my very favorite New Year is not the Chinese but the Thai — known as Songkran. It’s in April, in the hot season, and everyone gets out on the streets and sprays water on each other. Now that’s what I call a party! After all, what is kissing a beautiful stranger compared to completely soaking him/her in water?

Btw, this was apparently the last year they did fancy fireworks on Taipei 101 (see clip above). By next New Year this won’t be the tallest building in the world anymore and Sony — who sponsors the thing — will take its money elsewhere. Good riddance, I say.