Chinese New Year

A colleague of mine recently asked me, “What did you guys do for CNY?” To which I replied “What’s CNY?” To which she replied, “What? How long have you been in Asia?!” To which I replied, “Obviously not long enough!”

CNY, of course, and as I was informed, to what could be the majority of humans on earth, is the well-known acronym for “Chinese New Year”. And this exchange being immediately following CNY, the reference should have been obvious. However, me being the bule that I am, the situation was made even more comical when I blurted out, “The Chinese have their own New Year?” We moved onto other discussion points. J

Alright alright, I get it now! CNY! Chinese New Year! What can I say? I have lived in a cave for my entire adult life, and have had no outside contact with humans until now. She didn’t believe me.

OK, so what’s a Chinese New Year? According to Dr. Google, CNY marks the beginning of the year within the traditional Chinese calendar, which is a lunisolar calendar – meaning it’s based on a combination of moon phases and the time of the solar year (I know, blah blah blah….google it if you really want to read up on it). For some interestingly complicated reason, the day is calculated as the first new moon between 21 January and 21 February.

Now, most of the time, Chinese New Year will fall 11 (or sometimes 10 or 12) days earlier than the previous year, but if that means that the event would be outside of the Chinese New Year range of January 21 to February 21, a leap month must be added so Chinese New Year jumps 19 (or sometimes 18) days later.

Er, what? OK, enough of Dr. Google. It seems to be a bit more complicated than this blog should be. So, we’re going to move along.

Believe it or not, the Chinese resisted using the Gregorian calendar (the one we use) until 1912, when they “officially” switched. But officially, no one used it. The Gregorian calendar didn’t really take hold in China until as late as 1949, when Moe took power over China, and hey, just “made it so” (you know, that communist dictator thing). Suffice it to say though, the Chinese calendar remains a fixture in traditional Chinese culture.

Some of you by now may be thinking: what does this have to do with Indonesia, and/or this blog?  The answer lies in China, with a current population of 1.4 billion and 1/6^th of all humans on earth, has spread its cultural tentacles far and wide, and particularly throughout Asia. Although only making up 1 or 2% of Indonesia’s population of 260 million, people of Chinese descent have had a hugely disproportionate influence on the country, and are an integral part of the fabric here.

So, given that CNY is the biggest holiday celebration in China, and celebrated widely and hugely throughout Asia, Indonesia is no exception. CNY has a prominent position among Indonesia’s long list of statutory holidays (and hence the “what did you guys do for CNY?” question that unravelled all of this).

Here in Bogor, we have our fair share of Chinese influence, complete with the obligatory “China Town” known as Surya Kencana (Golden Sun….or something like that). Like all China towns it’s a bustle of humanity and shops where you can get dried lizard gizzard and scented snake oil, and the finest assortment of plastic buckets this side of Hong Kong. It is also the site of Bogor’s foremost traditional market, making it ground zero for your classic Asian street chaos – the kind of place we bules can walk around for hours armed with our cameras taking in the sights and smells of cow intestines, chicken feet, and other delectables.  

The main drag, auspiciously named Jalan Suryakencana (Jalan = street, so: Street of the Golden Sun), was obviously therefore the site of the main CNY celebrations, which includes the festival of lanterns. The festival of lanterns happens 15 days after CNY, and marks the first full moon of the year. It also marks the end of the CNY holiday period, so it’s one last blast before the party is officially over.

Full disclosure: we had no knowledge of any of this, until I googled it, after the fact. So when our good Dutch friends Peter and Basja invited us along to go see “the parade in China Town”, we quite merrily joined then, however woefully unaware of what the event was. I suppose it would be like showing up at a Christmas parade and wondering who the guy with the white beard and red suit is.  Pretty funny actually, as I wade through internet images and Wikipedia sites afterwards….oh, ya, that’s why those guys were doing that fuzzy animal thing, and yep, 15 days….the math checks out!  Ah hey, that’s why we’re here! Chinese New Year, OK, got it. I can confidently say I won’t ever get caught with my pants down again, when someone says “what are you guys doing for CNY?” J

BTW, what did we do for CNY? That was the subject of the previous post, the long weekend mission to the beaches of southwest Java – so that explains the stat holiday we had (he says as the light bulb goes on…”click”). Hmmm, everything is connected isn’t it?