I teach my usual classes today but preparations for our Christmas dinner begin in the afternoon with Cynthia dropping off two big bags of food. Tiffany and I investigate: a chicken, a big fish, and other things we don't recognize. One bag that looks kind of like intestines later turns out to be solidified fat for cooking! Some of the other teachers bring plastic bowls, disposable chopsticks, cups and so forth, so we don't actually have to supply anything!
At around 4:30 p.m., some of the women come to my apartment to begin preparing food. (Actually Cynthia had come earlier to start something with chicken cooking in a crock pot. And it smells divine!) Eventually we have an entire crew of people (some men too!) cooking away at our little two-burner stoves (mine and D&T's next door), and within an incredibly short time, they have produced an amazing Chinese Christmas dinner. So much wonderful food. We have quite a crowd: all of the Senior English teachers, a few of the Junior teachers, and two of the school principals.
After we are all stuffed and the crowd has thinned out, we give the Senior teachers (the ones who are still here) their Christmas gifts, telling them that Santa had dropped them off on Christmas Eve! We have a hand-made scarf for everyone. Except Tyler's is still on the knitting needles! (see photos) I tell him it's better than Jack's scarf and hold up the ball of yarn because I haven't even started his yet!
After, my floor is a complete mess (I guess this is why they have tile floors everywhere!) but Tyler does a terrific job of cleaning it up. In fact, all of the teachers work very hard and quickly on the clean-up, and by the time they leave, our kitchens are almost completely back in order.
A wonderful evening, filled with the Christmas spirit, laughter and good cheer!
NOTE: The following is from David & Tiffany's blog, which adds some additional info about "Christmas in China":
China is not a Christian country. In fact, most of the population has no religion at all (many superstitions, but no “religion” per se). So, before the Christmas season we’d expected that we’d see very few of the traditional symbols of Christmas around our town. However, we were a bit surprised to see many pictures of Santa posted in stores and restaurants. In fact, many Chinese [are] well-aware of Christmas’ existence. Still, despite that the fact that the literal English translation of the Chinese word for Christmas (shengdanjie) is “Holy Person’s Birthdate,” most Chinese people do not know much about the Christian traditions of Christmas. From what I gathered, in our town most people’s understanding of Christmas is limited to the following:
1) It is the Western World’s biggest holiday.
2) Westerners exchange gifts and Christmas cards on Christmas
3) We have put Christmas Trees up in our homes (although many of our students mistook pictures of the red and green spherical Christmas ornaments for apples and thus thought that Westerners decorate the Christmas Tree with apples).
4) For some reason, we hang socks over the fireplace.
5) Santa is the primary symbol of Christmas. In fact, many of the pictures of Santa we saw around town seemed to indicate an understanding that Christmas was Santa’s birthday.
6) “Santa” is not a word that many people know. His Chinese name is “Sheng dan Lao ren,” or literally, “Christmas Old Person.” Thus, most of our students refer to him fondly in English as that or something similar. “Merry Christmas Grandpa” seemed to be a popular name.
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