Happy Chinese New Year!

New Year already…it’s still 2013 right? Don’t worry, you didn’t get so wasted
at The Loop last Wednesday that you’re suffering mild concussion and have
blacked out an entire year in your mind (unless you have, then I suggest a trip
to the hospital PRONTO). No, we can give ourselves another legitimate excuse
to gorge on food and boogie on down by celebrating the Chinese New Year this
Sunday 10th February.

Also known as the ‘Spring Festival’, Chinese New Year is considered one of
the most important of the Chinese Holidays and is traditionally a fifteen-day
celebration. That’s fifteen days off work, fifteen days of spring cleaning and
fifteen days of presents, money giving, house decorating and feast consumption-
plenty of time for feasting!

Unfortunately I don’t think the budget would cover a few thousand plane tickets
to Beijing, so to get into the spirit of the holiday and welcome in 2013’s Year of
the Snake, the Chinese Students and Scholars Association (CSSA) organised
a Culture Fair in the UCL North and South Cloisters last Friday afternoon. From
hand-made crafted jewellery, calligraphy writing, the chance to dress up in
typical dress at the photo booth and a variety of food stalls selling traditional
cuisine, the fair brought the best of the rich Chinese culture to UCL. Students
were also treated to one of the highlights of worldwide Chinese New Year
festivities, with a traditional good luck Dragon Dance in the Quad.

Or if like me you’ve already given up on this year’s resolutions and need greater motivation than the fact you can no longer afford late night supermarket trips to M&S (in my defence why should those freshly baked double chocolate chip cookies go to waste?), then take this opportunity to start afresh. Looks like I’m ditching those cookies for a fortune cookie. Happy new New Year!

新年快樂 xin nian kuai le