SIZZLING WOK CELEBRATES CHINESE NEW YEAR
by Surrey Slider
[Editor’s note: after Ginny Pourer had its first story printed last week, I sent my other ex-waitdroid reporter out on a story with the challenge to come back with something even more interesting. I can see that setting the two of them up in competition to each other will pay results.]
Mercury has just been the venue for a massive party as it celebrates the Chinese New Year, with the festivities being hosted by the Sizzling Wok restaurant.
The festivities are traditionally held at the start of the ploughing and sowing season and provide a chance for loved ones to reunite. Well, there’s not a whole lot of ploughing or sowing on Mercury, despite the strange agricultural equipment found in the Old Earth Taproom, but people of Chinese extraction tend to flock to the famous restaurant at this time of year, coming from all over the Solar System to reunite with their far-flung loved ones.
The Sizzling Wok’s normal décor has been enhanced: the doors and windows have been hung with red ribbons to ward off evil, and the waitdroids are dressed in red, the colour of good luck.
At a special feast, the diners were served a traditional meal of dumplings and fish, and then the entertainment took to the surrounding streets. People strolled through artificial trees with fake cherry blossom made from LED lights, while children set off firecrackers to noisy effect.
Acrobats tumbled along the corridors, and with Mercury’s low gravity they were able to perform some outstanding tricks. Fighters displayed their prowess in martial arts, all accompanied by frantic drumming. A traditional Chinese dragon dance threaded its way through the crowds from the Sizzling Wok close to the space port, up to the hub then on to the trading exchange, where even the hardened traders raised their eyes (or equivalent) from their terminals to watch for a minute before returning to their frantic buying and selling.
The celebrations culminated in a firework display held at the hub – by necessity quite a small display given that the inhabited parts of Mercury are in tunnels underground. No rockets shooting into the sky, but plenty of roman candles, catherine wheels and sparklers.
Legend has it that in ancient China, a beast called Nian would attack people at the end of each year, but could be kept at bay with noise, bright lights and colour. Well, any excuse for a party. On the evidence of the celebrations on Mercury, the people can sleep safe in their beds for another year.
Let me close this report by wishing you all a happy Chinese new year, as we welcome in the year of the horse. No, not Pegasus, this year isn’t about winged horses but wooden ones!
Kung Hei Fat Choi!
