The days following the wedding day, I was required to wake up every morning for seven days to prepare tea for my in-laws. The proper tea is some sort of sweet tea (which I haven’t caught the name of until now) that has to be boiled for two hours.
Since my father-in-law was up at 6:30am and my mother-in-law at about 7:30am, I had to get up once to serve tea to my FIL and then an hour later to serve my MIL.
Apparently, a traditional new wife would also prepare the first meal as a daughter to the family to demonstrate to her new parents that her own parents have raised her well. Obviously I had not been raised well because I was in no position to cook the minimum requirements that would have been considered a meal.
As the wife of a son in the family, my status was elevated above that of my husband’s sisters. That meant I was now responsible for helping my MIL with their religious festival preparations and it would be my duty to continue these traditions when my MIL passed on.
Whether my MIL went easy on me because it was my first year, I don’t know. Whatever the case, I assisted only with the most basic of preparations that even a moron could have performed, such as cleaning the banana leaves and cutting them up into little circles.
There were three events that took place around Chinese New Year.
1. The official closing of the factory
2. The official opening of the factory
3. The worship session at the home - 15th day of New Year
Other posts that might interest you:
What is RSS? How do I subscribe via RSS?
Entries (RSS)