to those who are waking up to the lunar new year: 新年快乐！
i wish i could be celebrating with my family and friends....it seems so long ago when i couldn't really sleep the night before, possibly having gobbled up too much during the reunion steam-boat dinner or staying up with mummy and papa while they skilfully write couplets for the doorway in their beautiful Chinese calligraphy (something which i, shamefully, never quite master). we always have rice noodles for breakfast for New Year's morning, either at home or at the temple after paying our respects to my ancestors, and Buddha (we are a family of Buddhists, although i'd rather like to see it as a philosophy or way of life rather than a religion per se, which i believe was never the intention of Buddha himself). the first day of Chinese New Year is a day of visiting relatives and friends for my family while the second official day is spent welcoming family and friends. i have always looked forward to visiting granny and my late grandpa, grand aunty and grand uncle for they would have prepared a plethora of delectable goodies awaiting our visit.
New Year is good fun for us kids? apart from the food galore (see the pictures Joan took at home and at Chinatown in Singapore, showcasing some traditional festival foods etc.), there are red packets to collect?.in it would be some token of cash from older relatives or family friends (the aunties and uncles) as a form of goodwill and ?Gl?ckwunsch? for the new year. it is like the western celebration of Christmas where family and friends exchange gifts and most children also receive money, however, in Chinese new year, presents in the form of Red Packets are ?exchanged?. there are apparently rules to all this giving and receiving e.g. only married adults give them to children and not vice versa!. another fun part of it is to rehearse some happy positive 4-word greeting phrases (e.g. the last line in this blog entry, in Chinese - sorry!) which one says as s/he gives two mandarins to the family they visit!
i miss not celebrating New Year in its ?authentic? form. for the last eight years since i have been studying and living in Europe, i have either celebrated this day with local Asian folks or in more recent years, celebrated it with my European friends. it's never quite the same, but it?s just as meaningful to share this tradition with others from and in another part of the world. to everyone out there, have a sprightly and splendid year of the monkey!
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