Monday, February 15, 2010

Chinese New Year/ Valentines Day


Valentines Day is huge here, even the day before the streets are lined with people selling flowers, as you see in this photo.

Chinese New Year is also big here, there are lots of Chinese people in Cambodia and lots of other people who like Chinese things and/or like holidays (I guess). In the lead up to CNY I saw heaps of people buying and selling what looks like a bundle of sticks. I never saw this in China, I don't think they do it in the part of China I was in.

Also in the lead up to CNY there are lots of shiny red and gold things for people to buy to get ready for new year. Can you see these decorated pumpkins being sold alongside the usual produce?

Anyway, back to the bundle of sticks. It turns out they are trees. You can buy them and if the yellow flower blooms on new year it means you will have good luck all year.

You can see the tree in this petrol sellers house has been untired and decorated with red money packets.

This one in the house of the chemist shop was already blooming on the 13th Feb, so i guess they won't have good luck this year. There was an article in the paper about someone who had worked out how to control the blooming by the amount of water they used. So he knows he will always have good luck because he can make his tree bloom on the right day.

1 comment:

Rachael said...

My Vietnamese friend's family have that tree in their house (here in the U.S.). That's funny, because I don't remember seeing them in Cambodia. Happy CNY and Valentine's Day! :)