Chinese New Year

Brother and Sister Bench invited us to her mothers home for a traditional Chinese New Years celebration.  From 1966-2000 the Chinese were forbidden to celebrate the New Year in Indonesia.  Their schools were shut down and many were forced to change their names in order to avoid persecution.  All of this in spite of the fact that most had been born in Indonesia....their parents had immigrated to this country.

Sister Bench's father and his first wife.  This shrine was the first thing you saw as you entered the home.  As family arrived they each took three sticks of incense, lit them from the candles, stood in front of the shrine and offered prayers, bowed three times and placed the incense in the silver container.

Family members in traditional Chinese clothing 

A gift brought to the home...everything is made from chocolate (the oranges, the bowl, the plate, the chopsticks, the sign)

Our apartment lobby decorated for Chinese New Year...it's the year of the horse