Day 251: Days leading up to Chinese New Year

Happy Chinese New Year! This time of year is special in China, almost akin to Christmas in the western world in regards to spending time with family. The celebration is 15 days long starting with the second new moon after the winter solstice and lasting until the next full moon. If my math is correct, this year the dates are February 15th through March 2nd.

I likened Spring Festival — as Chinese New Year is also known as — to Christmas in the western world as many workers take extra time off, factories and shops close for extended periods of time, and many people travel. In fact, it has been said that the largest annual human migration happens during this period of time. Yep, can’t wait to try out that fancy E-Channel at the Shanghai Pudong (PVG/ZSPD) later this week to jump quickly through the immigration queue!

Now, normally at 6pm on a Tuesday my office is still quite busy with developers furiously typing away at their computers writing more code while others are discussing how to best solve a problem. Today I find myself being the sole person around. Seeing as this is the second to last official work day of the week it’s understandable but at the same time is rather eerie. Don’t get me wrong, it might feel eerie but the quiet is nice!

To me what is strange about Chinese New Year are the days that we officially have off from work: Thursday through the following Wednesday. Some of these days are official government mandated days off while others are added on by my company. To make it so we have seven consecutive days off, we had to come to the office on Sunday of this week after having only Saturday off and, unless vacation time was requested, we are expected to work Thursday, Friday, and Saturday the following week. This is very strange for someone who is used to always having weekends off — unless it’s crunch-time for a major project deadline!

Anyway, just wanted to share a few random thoughts about Spring Festival. I’ll be working through Friday this week before spending a few days in San Francisco visiting with friends I’ve not seen since moving. Can’t wait!

恭喜发财！