Happy Ding Hai

A record 160,000 people flowed through Beijing international airport yesterday as the city geared up for the Lunar New Year's Eve. Airport staff removed business stands from airport lounges to make room for passengers and more parking lots have been arranged for large areoplanes. Beijing’s air travellers will be part of an astonishing 2.17 billion passengers on the move during the Spring Festival season in 2007. It's a number that is up 5% on last year's holiday season. Increased affluence and a greater number of migrant workers have added to the strain on China's transport system.

The reason so many are on the move is that today is the start of the Year of the Pig. The lunar new year is China’s most important festival. For 15 days, Chinese people across the world celebrate this auspicious occasion. There are parades of carnival dragons and fireworks light up the night sky, as they have done in China for 2,000 years. State TV showed pictures of President Hu Jintao visiting a ordinary Chinese family to wish them well.

It is a well-wishing time for all Chinese. The pig is the symbol of good luck and prosperity and this time it is a golden pig year, which happens once every 60 years. The formal name of the golden pig year is Ding Hai. This Ding Hai is the 8th year in the current 60-year cycle and takes us into the Year 4704, by the Chinese calendar. The names of the Chinese years come from a legend where Lord Buddha summons the animals to him before he departs from the Earth. The tardy pig is the last to arrive behind 11 other quicker animals (who were the rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, sheep, monkey, rooster and dog). Despite, or many because of, its lack of speed, astrologers says the pig is honest, steadfast and generous.

But not everyone believes a pig year is a portent of good fortune. Some soothsayers caution the pig can bring turbulence, and warn of a rise in natural disasters and conflict in 2007. Hong Kong feng shui master Raymond Lo thinks the Year of the Pig will not be peaceful. “Pig years can be turbulent because they are dominated by fire and water, conflicting elements that tend to cause havoc,” he said.

There is also some religious sensitivity to the celebrations this year. China has banned ads with visual and verbal pork references. The state-run broadcaster CCTV has told major advertising agencies not to use pig images, cartoons or slogans "to avoid conflicts with ethnic minorities." This is code for China’s 20 million Muslims. Hassan Bai Runsheng, an imam at a Shanghai mosque, approves of the ban. "We see a decision like this in the context of creating a harmonious society between Han Chinese and ethnic minority groups," he said.

It is not just a Muslim aversion to pork that is the problem. There remains an aftertaste of religious oppression that China is trying to forget. The Hui people are one of China’s largest ethnic minorities. Although similar in culture to the Han Chinese, they are differentiated by their practice of Islam. About 70,000 of China's almost 10 million Hui live in the city of Xian, one of the country’s major ancient capitals. That is only a fraction of the estimated 800,000 who lived in China's northern Shaanxi province before 1862, when the Qing Dynasty sent its armies to wipe them out after a series of rebellions. More than a million Muslims were killed in the Qing crackdown. Tolerance was slow in coming to China, During Mao’s Cultural Revolution, Chinese Muslims were not allowed to attend the Hajj. This policy was reversed in 1979. Now represented by pressure groups such Chinese Patriotic Islamic Association and the China Islamic Association, Islam is on the rise again. The pig ad ban is testament to its growing power in China.

But most of the other 1.3 billion Chinese will be more favourably disposed to the year of the hog. Because of its lucky year status, babies born this year are said to be blessed with a carefree life. Demographers are expecting a baby boom in China this year. Condom sales are decreasing and wedding plans are on the increase. China’s creaking health system will struggle to keep up with demand in the maternity wards.

Happy New Year

Woolly Days and offspring brought in the New Year in South Bank parklands along with a crowd of 100,000. We witnessed the explosion of two tonnes of fireworks at in two sessions at 9pm and midnight. It was a pleasantly warm evening, not too humid and crowded with good-humoured revellers. Brisbane police arrested 99 people on 120 charges but said crowds were generally well behaved and the arrest numbers were comparable to a typical Friday night in the city.

On the Gold Coast, more than 50,000 people packed Cavill Mall in Surfer’s Paradise to celebrate the new year. Arrests were low. Local police senior-sergeant Fawcett said “We do not expect any specific drugs problems other than the biggest drug, alcohol,” Meanwhile, the local newspaper the Bulletin felt 2006 was a tough year exemplified by “the loss of celebrities Steve Irwin, Peter Brock and Belinda Emmett”.

Sydney kicked off the new year with the world’s largest fireworks show. One million people crammed the harbour foreshore despite the predicted wind and rain to see a massive fireworks show on the Harbour Bridge. This year’s celebrations marked the 50th anniversary of the magnificent bridge and it was lit up with an illuminated diamond to mark the occasion. Though not everyone was impressed. English backpacker John Johnson said: "It's been raining, there's no sunshine and the surf's rubbish - so it's a bit like England.

Internationally, New Year’s eve was celebrated in similar style. Though there were a few notable exceptions. In Baghdad, 31 December was just another day of violence. At 8:30 am a mortar fell behind a hospital in northern Baghdad at a house killing 2 children and injuring the parents. At 11am a roadside car bomb exploded in Haifa street which killed one and injured 4 others. Another person was killed in a carbomb at midday nd there were two other mortars that caused injuries. Another seven bodies were found in various parts of Baghdad during the day.

In Thailand, the celebrations were cancelled in Bangkok and the northern city of Chiang Mai after six bombs exploded in the capital killing two people and injuring 15 others. The six bombs were set off in a 15 minute span, five in the city and one in nearby Nonthaburi. The bombs were set off in easy targets such as bus stops, rubbish bins and parking lots. Two Thai men died in the blasts. It was unclear who were behind the attacks, but police dismissed any connection with the southern insurgency.

Scotland, the home of Hogmanay, also saw the cancellation of most new year celebrations. But here the cause was nature. Severe weather caused the cancellation of parties in Glasgow, Edinburgh and Stirling. Edinburgh has predicted a crowd of 100,000 for a concert headed by the Pet Shop Boys and Scottish singer /songwriter Paolo Nutini. The decision to cancel was made at 8:30pm local time as the weather forecast deteriorated significantly during the evening. Glasgow's organisers said wind gusts were reaching over 100kph and they could not ensure public safety.

In Berlin, high winds were also a problem but not enough to cause cancellation of the new year’s event. Gale force winds kept the city's emergency services busy on Sunday. Yet one million people thronged the main boulevard heading from the landmark Brandenburg Gate for a night of partying and a spectacular midnight fireworks display. The concert at the Gate was headed by the Scissor Sisters and the Black Eyed Peas.

Many Germans, however, prefer to stay at home on New Year's Eve and take part in one of the day’s more peculiar rituals. On 31 December, every TV station in Germany shows an old and otherwise obscure British 11 minute black-and-white comedy sketch called “Dinner for One” about an aristocrat and her butler. “Dinner for One (the video is available here on youtube) is also known as "The 90th Birthday" or by its corresponding German title “Der 90. Geburtstag”. Though mostly unknown in the English speaking world, it is New Year’s Eve cult viewing in Germany as well as Scandinavia and Switzerland. On New Year's Eve 2003 alone, the sketch was broadcast 19 times on various channels.

The sketch itself has nothing to do with New Year. Instead it tells the story of the 90th birthday of aristocrat Miss Sophie played by May Warden. As in the years before, she hosts a birthday party for her dead friends. Her butler James, played by Freddie Finton, fills in the roles of each of the friends. He gets increasingly drunk as he answers the birthday toasts proposed by Miss Sophie. The catchphrase of the sketch is

James: The same procedure as last year, Miss Sophie?
Miss Sophie: The same procedure as every year, James!

Be warned. Repetition of this exchange with someone of German extraction is likely to cause paroxysms of mirth.

There is no accounting for taste. Frohes Neue Jahr!