SUSSING OUT A NEW EXPERIENCE: Celebrating Chinese New Year in Atlanta with my boon companion

HAPPY CHINESE NEW YEAR 2014! Everyone greeted Chiboogamoo and me with an exuberant Happy New Year! Here the woman at the ticket booth gladly posed for a photo. Entry to the festival was 5 dollars. (photo by Hallelujah Truth)

Hallelujah for the diversity in Atlanta! Hallelujah for our Chinese community that can be reached from Decatur via MARTA to Chamblee using the gold line! 

USING MARTA TO GET TO CHINA TOWN! Atlanta has two train lines--North/South and East/West. We live in Decatur and must do a train change at Five Points to go from West to North. Often the wait is overlong and the marque you see in this photo was only showing train times for trains going south. We waited for more than 20 minutes to get the gold line to go north to Chamblee. Yes, it felt slightly frustrating not knowing when our train would arrive. (photo by Hallelujah Truth)

Yesterday my Chiboogamoo and I finally made good on our desire to visit China town in Atlanta to witness the celebration of the Chinese New Year! Happy New Year! If you didn't get off to the kind of start you wanted to at the beginning of January, here is another opportunity to begin again. 

RE-START. 
RE-ENVISION.
RE-EXPLORE.
RE-INVIGORATE.

THE DRAGON! This dragon had already been put away in a closet before we left the festival Saturday afternoon. It will be used on Sunday for another performance. (photo by Hallelujah Truth)

Arriving in at the Chamblee MARTA station, we had a short 10-minute walk to the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office, where the festival was being held. We were not alone. Many were walking from MARTA and from the parking lot across from MARTA. The stream of meandering pedestrians was heart warming.

The crowd of festival go-ers was so thick we had trouble seeing the dragon dance performance taking place in the parking lot, so we traveled inside the festival tent and into the Culutral Office facility for some delicious food. And it was even more crowded there.

FOOD CROWD! My Chiboogamoo and I were able to "fend" for ourselves and get some sticky rice with pork and peanuts, pot stickers and some delicious pancakes. Before we left we purchased some red bean cake. You can see the back of Chiboogamoo's head on the right, leading the way. Hallelujah! (photo by Hallelujah Truth)

Sitting in a small room outside of the auditorium to eat our Chinese goodies, we found ourselves in the presence of a god! Yes there is someone inside of this god costume! His eyes were at the mouth level! And he enjoyed posing for this photo. His eyes were smiling.

A CHINSE GOD! . (photo by Hallelujah Truth)

As we were leaving the festival, I asked my boon companion to tell me what he had gotten from our visit. Novelty? Joy? Revisiting another time in our lives (We both had studied the Chinese language more than 25 years ago now)? I'm not sure what his answer was, but here is a photo of a family posing in front of a performer with what I think is a horse or lion costume.
 

THE FAMILY! Tradition is a big part of festivals. Photos document the generations celebrating what is important. (photo by Hallelujah Truth)

I think celebrations like these are for families, tradition, food, and all of us are invited to be a part of that. The universe if vast and we are not alone if we embrace one another and new beginnings.

HAPPY CHINESE NEW YEAR!

That's Coffee with Hallelujah! SOUL BLOG with me and tell me about your plans for 2014, The Year of the Horse!

BOON COMPANIONS SEEKING NOVELTY! Thank goodness the MARTA ride home from Chamblee was rapid, fun, and easy. We had no wait time at the Chamblee station and once we arrived at Five Points, the train came within a few minutes. Here Chiboogamoo and I are checking our cell phones during the short respite in our travel. Novelty is good for a marriage. I feel so fortuante in having such a boon companion to suss out new experiences and go there. Hallelujah. (photo by Hallelujah Truth)