Smell
Marcel Proust used to say that perfumes are very evocative and bring back to mind situations from the past. Just as for some of us the scent of cinnamon, ginger, oranges or fir transports us to the Christmas atmosphere, perhaps to a particular Christmas from our childhood, so incense and fireworks for me remind the Chinese New Year. We have talked about the fireworks, I only perceived their smell again this year after a long time, a pungent smell, at times annoying, but certainly unmistakable. These are not just the fantasies of a foreigner, even Chinese friends told me that for them, New Year’s Eve means the smell of fireworks, the fireworks that could be set off everywhere when they were children, the fireworks that chased away the Nian and that served as background music for the entire duration of the celebrations..
Then there is the incense, which, during these two weeks of celebration, burns abundantly in the braziers of the various Buddhist temples where many Chinese, believers and non-believers, Buddhists and non-Buddhist, flock to propitiate the new year. We also visited Hong Luo Se, a temple a few kilometers from our home, and we were enveloped in clouds of incense: there is no need to buy it, each person is given three sticks that can be lit from the lotus-shaped candles placed on the sides of the brazier. With clasped hands, people grasp the three smoking sticks and bows three times to the West, three times to the North where there is often a statue of Buddha, three times to the South, then three times to the East, and finally they place the sticks in the brazier before continuing the visit to other “pavilions”, burning more incense. I observe this scene, seen and reviewed many times, but which always fascinates me, who knows if also for the Chinese the sense of smoke rising upwards is a symbol of prayer, of invocation, which rises towards the divinity?
Sight
If there is one color that predominates during New Year’s Eve, it is red: red are the envelopes, containing a generous tip, that are given to children for the new year, red are the lanterns that are hung at the entrance of the doors of the houses and that decorate the streets, red are the decorations that are placed on the doorposts, red are the ribbons that in the temples are tied to the fences or on the trees, red with gold-colored auspicious writings. Even our little village has “dressed up” for the celebrations. Here the homes are not apartments in anonymous buildings like in the city, but houses with courtyards, with rooms on two or three sides, the entrance is a large door outside which in recent days everyone has hung red lanterns, a symbol of the festival, in particular the festival that will close the celebrations on Wednesday 12 February, the Lantern Festival.
Lanterns that in these two weeks have illuminated a little more the small streets of our village, usually wrapped in darkness with only the stars and the moon, when there is one, to illuminate everything. On the doorposts are hung the 春联 – Chun Lian – the couplets of the Spring Festival, short compositions that express good wishes and wishes for the New Year. In the past, everyone wrote them by hand, using ink and brush to trace the characters on a thin red paper. Often, a square of red paper with the character 福 – Fu – for luck, happiness, blessing is also hung together with the Chun Lian. Ours, this year handwritten by a Chinese colleague of mine who is passionate about calligraphy, we hung it upside down as is often done. It is hung upside down because the Chinese word for the opposite 倒- dao – is pronounced like to arrive 到 – dao – so the meaning is that good luck has arrived at our home.
This year we also hung Chun Lian on the door/window through which our three cats, Leone, Mela and Castagna, enter and exit, and for them there is nothing better than the wish 出入平安 – Chu Ru Ping An – come out and enter in peace! Even during our visit to the temple, the color red dominated, with many red ribbons hanging here and there with requests of all kinds: a year with good business, health and happiness, the gift of a child or the request to pass the dreaded high school graduation exam. Sometimes during this period even the dumplings are dyed red, or rather purple, simply by adding the juice of the 火龙果 – Huo Long Guo – the dragon fruit to the dough; this year we too, during these long holidays, have given a touch of extra color to one of our dinners by trying to prepare this dough!
Touch
Immediately after New Year’s Eve, it is traditional to visit relatives, exchanging gifts such as oil, rice, milk, eggs, fruit, packaged in beautiful and eye-catching cardboard boxes that can be found in every supermarket or, like close to our village, outside the small shops that line the road that leads to the Great Wall. We took this opportunity to get to better know the people who populate our village, but we brought forward the visit before New Year’s Eve, so as not to disturb the family celebrations. With the help of the girls, we prepared about forty salty muffins to take to the “grandparents” in the village. On the afternoon of the penultimate day of the year, with fruit, eggs and muffins we went to visit the three families that we have come to know a little better in these months here: first the elderly couple who, after having accidentally hit our parked car, continue to give us cabbages, chestnuts and pickled vegetables prepared by them, then the couple who runs the only shop in town, and their elderly parents and finally the relatives of the owner of our house. We entered their homes, we chatted, we ate what they offered us and we exchanged greetings, it was very nice, everyone welcomed us warmly, inviting us to the New Year’s Eve dinner. The next day, on the morning of 除夕- Chu Xi – New Year’s Eve, we went door-to-door to deliver the rest of the muffins. The person who opened the door was surprised to see two foreigners knocking on their doors and wishing them well, but once again each of them was very welcoming. A small gesture, which allowed us, in some cases, to touch with our hands the loneliness, the illness and the extreme simplicity of the life of these people, most of them very elderly: grandparents who have had strokes, others who can no longer walk and stay indoors all winter because it’s too cold, waiting for spring to be able to sit on the doorstep and chat, others, who are still strong, take care of daily tasks, people over ninety who with difficulty but with perseverance, leaning on two sticks, do not give up their daily walk. A first step to get close to and enter, on tiptoe, into the lives of these people.
