Christmas in Sichuan is time to party. Night clubs, restaurants, bars and karaoke places are all booked and crowded. You can find the most extravagant parties of the year on Christmas Eve. Some of the parties charge well over one thousand US dollars for an entrance ticket. But there was one thing no one expected and had become a tradition for several years until being banned by the government: Christmas street party. Years ago, for some mysterious reason, a large group of young people started gathering on street  with balloon toys in hand on Christmas Eve. They quickly drew more and more people, then it became a phenomenon that everyone had to go and join. Every Christmas Eve for several years in a row, hundreds of thousands of people poured out on the street to celebrate, and nobody can explain why. From the picture you can see that it is just like Time Square on New Year’s Eve.

In New York City it is the other way around. Legend 72, like all the other Sichuan restaurants here, is full of Jewish families. It is a well-known Jewish tradition of eating at Chinese restaurants on Christmas or Christmas Eve. Historian can trace this tradition back to the end of 19th century. It is intriguing to think, at this time of year, how people find different ways to (or not to) celebrate Christmas, and they are connected by the global culture link in tandem, even when they are thousands of miles apart, barely knowing anything about each other.