Kung Yee Fat Choy ! Happy Chinese New Year !

Tuesday, February 1st was the first day, New Year's Day, of the year 4709 - The Year of the Rabbit in the Chinese Lunar Calendar – the 4th year of the 12 year cycle of Chinese astrological symbols.
 

There were celebrations in Chinatown and downtown Honolulu last weekend and again there will be Lion Dancers to chase away the demons and bring prosperity and good luck to the outlying shopping malls this coming weekend.

Chinatown Entry - Honolulu, Hawaii

We, my friends Sherb, Jen and I went to Chinatown on Friday night to walk all over to watch the Lion Dancers visiting each of the many business locations.

Before the firecrackers begin - What will the Lions do?

The Lion Dancers are young members of the local Chinese social and cultural organizations. There are many of these organizations many of which have a squad of young people to be the Lion Dancers. 

The Lions go to investigate each packet of exploding firecrackers - Note the debris on the street from the firecrackers.

Bang the cymbal and the drums! Noise, noise, lots of noise will scare away the demons and bring prosperity and good luck all the year!

The groups come to the store amid a great cacophony of gongs, cymbals and strings of several thousand firecrackers exploding for the Lions to symbolically "eat" or receive a gift to drive away demons and to bring prosperity and good luck to the business for the coming year. The store prepares a gift for the Lions and provides firecrackers for the celebration.



My friend and apartment mate, Sherb, and I got as close to the activity as possible to take photos and to shoot short videos.  The conditions were difficult. The noise was completely deafening.  I was worried about damage to the hearing in my one remaining good ear, my left ear.
 

 

To get the full effect of the video, turn your speakers up LOUD!  then throw sand up to bounce off your face!

The firecrackers were creating great billows of sulfurous gun smoke making it nearly impossible to breath. The new, "paperless" firecrackers still use some paper, but somehow, they are using sand in them, so I was being sandblasted by particles of sand bouncing off my face, glasses and the camera. It took showers on 2 consecutive days to get all the sand out of my hair.  

My shoes were dusty and my camera required a good cleaning after the weekend.

The store owners kept throwing packages of firecrackers one after another for the Lions.  We left after about 30 minutes to get a breath of clean air – the store owner was still lighting and throwing out packs of firecrackers to keep the Lions occupied!

  

The following day, we returned to downtown Honolulu for the parade honoring the Chinese New Year.  The parade was composed of about 50 or 60 various Chinese social, business and cultural organizations along with a US Navy Band, several high school bands and the Royal Hawaiian Marching Band. 

US Navy Color Guard

US Navy Band

Enter the Dragon !

The Dragon was presented by a Chinese Society

A Bevy of Beauty Queens On Parade.

Mun Lun School - 100th Anniversary Year

Mun Lun School - Teaching Chinese Language and Culture to new generations.

Mun Lun School - Elementary School Students on Parade.

A Lion Dance Association

A Golden Boy and his mom - Association of Chinese University Women.

Portrait of the Golden Boy

A Young Lion Dancer

Sherb Feeding a Lion for Good Luck

The parade took over 2 hours to pass by.  The crowds, particularly the children were feeding the Lions folded up dollar bills for luck as each of the groups passed by.this is many of the organization's major chance to raise funds for the coming year.

The Royal Hawaaian Marching Band

Youngsters in a Physical Culture Club

Doing Exercises on Hotel Street

The Stickfighters Club

 The costumes and banners were colorful and striking.

A view of China of Old - and Mr. Panda

Bright Banner for a Parade Group

China of Old

Hawaii of Today !

Another Bright Banner

Another Colorful Banner - But, Its all Chinese to Me !

After the parade, we walked about 4 blocks to the Asian Cultural Plaza to join the milling crowds getting Chinese food unique to the New Year Season. 

Asian Cultural Plaza - The Moongate Stage with Lion Dancers

 

All Kinds of barbecued foods were ready at the Plaza

Feed the Lion to bring prosperity and good luck all year long.

Portrait of a Lion Dancer Costume 

We ended up eating dinner at Verbano's Italian Restaurant - a restaurant we often go to.  Verbano's is operated by a Chinese family!

Today’s word is “Keiki”  Pronounced “Kay – key” and it means child or children. 

Honolulu has a special Keiki section at its Zoo in Kapiolani Park near Waikiki.  

The Keiki Zoo which is a “must visit” attraction when you and your keiki visit Honolulu.

Keiki Zoo - Honolulu, HI

Nuuanu Stream, Local Phrases & Words

Five Minutes from Home

These photos were taken within 5 minutes from my apartment.  We stopped at the Nuuanu – Pali stream that flows through a neglected botanical garden.  Like all governments everywhere in the US these days, the facilities in the garden are closed, boarded off bathrooms, no parking etc. to save money the state does not have.  But, the trash cans are still emptied! 

 

 

Upstream - Nuuanu-Pali Stream and small falls

 

The setting is often used by wedding photographers as a backdrop for the portraits of the bridal couple and the wedding party.

Downstream - the stream passes under Interstate H-1

There is a nice pool at the base of the falls, but the stream is too polluted for the local children and teens to swim or wade in.   

The recent Winter storm rains have carried a lot of discarded junk and plastics down stream.

Junk in the stream carried down during winter storms

The Local Accent – Hawaiian Words and Phrases

The language used by the people living in Hawaii is very unique.  The intonation and rhythm of phrases is based on “Pidgin.”  This leads to a beautiful sounding version of American English.

Here is a typical local phrase.  “Dat mo betta fo’ you! Yeah?”  Translation – That’s better for you!  Note how they end the phrase with a request for agreement, “yeah?”  This form is very common.

Today’s word is “pau” – pronounced pow!  Pau means all gone, empty, used up, nothing, none.  It has crept into English out here like the words “kaput” or “nada” have infiltrated Mainland English. 

A recent headline in the Star-Advertiser – the state’s main newspaper read.  “State Budget Is Pau.” 

Notes from the War Zone - Holiday Fireworks !

Well, it sounds that way anyway!  The culture out here is to do fireworks, lots of fireworks around the holidays culminating in New Year's Eve until 1 AM (legally and all night long illegally.)  The noise tapered off about 2:30 AM.

Now, these are not your average run of the mill safe and sane fireworks, firecrackers, cherry bombs or M80's. These are the big guns!  The professional kind that you usually see at the stadium fireworks shows - or at Disneyland every night. When the lifting charge goes off you hear and feel a tremendous WHUMP - followed by a window shaking BANG and concussion wave when the main aerial charge goes off! 

Talk about "Bombs Bursting in Air " 

Here in Hawaii, the average citizen can buy these regular fireworks at their local Long's or Walgreen drugstores. Walmart, K-mart and Target do not miss this opportunity to make those extra bucks. There are a number of warehouse type of stores down on the waterfront that sell the big, professional fireworks to the general public.

Firecracker/fireworks permits cost $25.00 to legally shoot off fireworks.  So far this month almost 11,000 permits have been purchased on the island. Close to 400,000 pounds of fireworks were sold for the holiday period here.
 
Theoretically, it is legal to shoot them off from 9PM tonite until 1 AM on January 1.  But the barrage started slowly just before Christmas and reached a crescendo from 11:30 tonite until just few minutes after midnight. There were dense clouds of sulfurous smoke hanging all over the city from the all the fireworks.

Starting January 1st, 2011 fireworks, except firecrackers will be illegal due to a new ordinance just passed.  There is no way that this ordinance will be honored.  The culture of the people is too firmly rooted in the belief that you need to scare away the evil spirits with loud explosions at various times of the year or for various events.  Also, everyone tries to outdo their neighbor's fireworks efforts.

My friends here report that some of their family members spend up to $3,000 each for fireworks to celebrate the Christmas / New Year Holiday Season!


We had our breakfast this morning at the Original House of Pancakes.  A friend of Jen Medeiros saw Jen there and told her he had fallen asleep early New Years Eve and did not get a chance to set off his fireworks.  Now he has a cache of now illegal fireworks to deal with!

Today's (January 2nd) newspaper reports that 36 fires around the island were started by fireworks on New Year's Eve.

Christmas in Honolulu

I am starting this new blog about living in Hawaii on Christmas Day, 2010. 

I want to keep the writing to a minimum and add lots of photos. Yet, Hawaii is unique and different from other places I have lived in the USA.  I will make note of those differences as I go along.

Even Christmas is a bit different here on Oahu in Honolulu.

Home decor can feature unique Hawaiian themes – such as decorating the boat or outrigger canoe that is parked in your driveway, or having hula girls gently swaying as part of your outside Christmas lights.

Decorated Boat - Kaneohe, Hawaii

Teddy Bear in an Outrigger Canoe - Kaneohe, Hawaii

You might get a glimpse of an off duty Santa walking in Waikiki! 

 

Santa at Waikiki

While in Waikiki you can visit the prize winning “Gingerbread Village” proudly displayed in a magnificent hotel.

Prizewinning Gingerbread Village

The Iolani Palace is lightly decorated with lanterns.

Iolani Palace with Christmas Lanterns

There are giant figures of Santa and Mrs. Claus cooling their feet in a fountain with Santa giving passersby a “shaka” sign.  The “shaka” is a clenched hand with the thumb and little finger extended. The shaka means “That’s cool, bro!”  or “Thanks for letting me enter traffic!” and a thousand other meanings.

Shaka Santa - Downtown Honolulu

 You can find an enormous Christmas tree surrounded by palm trees.

Downtown Honolulu Christmas Tree

A visit to the Punchbowl crater’s National Cemetery of the Pacific will give a solemn reminder of the price paid for freedom with the sad but beautiful rows of Christmas wreath decorated graves of our fallen heroes. 

National Cemetery of the Pacific - Punchbowl Crater

Finally, our spirits should be lifted by attending a concert featuring the Honolulu Boys Choir a well known, enthusiastic group of seven to twelve year old boys singing joyfully in celebration of the Christmas Season.  

It is the Choir's tradition that the boys always perform barefooted.

Barefooted Choristers

Honolulu Boys Choir

“Mele Kalikimaka” or Merry Christmas from Honolulu, Hawaii.