The Household COO

It was Valentine’s Day and also the eighth day of New Year which is the official New Year’s Day for the Hokkien Chinese. 

Why don’t Hokkiens celebrate Chinese New Year on the same day as everyone else?  About six or seven years ago, my friend B explained the legend to me.  He had been reading a book about Chinese myths and legends.  According to the legend, some spirit or god or evil being (I can’t recall which) was after all the Hokkiens.  Warned of our impending doom by some guardian angel, all the Hokkiens hid in the bamboo forest until the evil spirit left.  Since the Hokkien people were in hiding during the actual New Year’s Day, they weren’t able to celebrate the New Year so they celebrated it on the eighth day - the day they came out of hiding.  Since then, the Hokkien people have always celebrated Chinese New Year on the eighth day to commemorate their lucky escape from extinction.

Below: A picture taken in 2006 because I haven’t yet downloaded the photos from camera from this year’s celebration.

There are no photos for this event in 2007 because I was still in confinement after delivering Gavin.  I’m not sure exactly why but we weren’t supposed to perform any of the New Year ceremonies last year because I had just delivered Gavin. 

It is a tradition that during Chinese New Year, we should wear a new outfit. I guess there is something linked to the idea of a new year and new clothes…

I was struggling to think of what I would wear this year because Chinese New Year is about a month after my delivery (less if Gavin is born late). I’ve been told that after delivery, I’ll still look like I’m about five months pregnant! I don’t want to buy any new clothes because I fully intend to shrink to my pre-pregnant size and wear all my pre-pregnant clothes again.

My SIL showed me this dress from Witchery in Australia. I thought it looked great! I’m sure I’d be able to wear it a couple of weeks after delivery and adjust it to fit me after I lose some more weight. Thanks HL! Perhaps I won’t be stuck wearing maternity clothes this Chinese New Year after all!

Chinese New Year 2006 presented my very first holiday with my new family - FIL, MIL, SILs, HL’s boyfriend, MR, and hubby. The original intention was to take a trip to Korea but somehow the plans sort of fell apart and we all ended up in Langkawi instead.

The first day began in early hours of morning with a mad rush through breakfast, serving tea to the elders (an expression of respect performed by all youngsters on the first day of Chinese New Year) and packing the cars. We drove up to Kuala Kedah to take the ferry across to Langkawi and it reminded me of a similar trip taken during SARS back when I was still working for Roche.

We made a couple of rest stops along the way where I got a little snap happy with the new digicam - Casio Exilim S600, hence the multitude of photos in the slide show below…

The ferry ride to Langkawi was uneventful. We arrived on the other side and loaded up on some duty free chocolates before making our way to the hotel. Since we spent most of the first day travelling, there wasn’t that much time to do anything other than check in, relax a little before meeting for dinner. After dinner, everyone was tired, so it was an early night for most, except HH and I, since we ended up playing scrabble.

The next morning, after breakfast, we went to check out some mountain ride. Since the queue was a mile long, we decided to give that a miss. After a spot of shopping, we headed over to the acquarium to see the animals. There are loads of pictures of these in the slide… I guess this is one of the typical spots to go to since we also went here during my previous trip with Roche. Since I had a better camera, I managed to get some better pictures this time. I must say, I’m quite impressed with this simple point-and-shoot…

We returned to the hotel, where Mum and Dad decided to take a rest while the “kids” went off for a massage. I’ve never had a professional massage until then and I have to say it was decidedly refreshing. So refreshing that I fell asleep during the hour-long session. It was certainly an experience I wouldn’t mind having again.

We got back to the hotel in time for another buffet dinner, followed by a couple of games of pool, another scrabble match - this time between hubby, M and me. I learned a new word “sloop” which is basically a small boat. M decided he never wanted to play scrabble with me again because I won, never mind the fact that I gave him a really good word with top points and still managed to beat him by a league. He felt jibbed because both hubby and I wouldn’t accept the word “sloop”. Honestly, even if I added the points he would have received from the word “sloop”, I would still have won the game.

The next morning it was back to the ferry port where we discovered the foolishness of travelling to Langkawi by ferry over the Chinese New Year period. The place was packed and they kept loading the ferries until it was well past it’s maximum capacity. The bags were stacked above the railings and could have landed on the laps of the passengers if there had been a sudden jolt to the boat. By the time the ferry was moving off, the gang plank we used to get on board was skewed almost vertically - I kid you not!

The drive back to town was just as bad with a multitude of cars on the road. Many were cutting queues and breaking all road rules. The pitstops were chocablock full of cars and people queuing for the toilets. I recall a stop that we made where I needed to perform a “no. 2″. I took one look at the toilet bowl and immediately became constipated.

A relaxing two days and a horrific third day for Chinese New Year 2006. All I can say is, please let’s go somewhere else next year…

Okay, this post is a bit late since we’re probably closer to Chinese New Year 2007 now than we are to the one that just passed. I was kind of busy at the time so I’ve been procrastinating putting up these photos until now…

For a traditional Taoist family, you have to have a closing ceremony for the family business. Like most of the other festivals on this blog, it involves fairly similar events - a big cook up with loads of food, the burning of shiny paper and incense sticks at the altar. Even the types of food served are fairly similar…

There are two altars at the factory - one inside and one outside. I’m not really sure what the difference is, but I think each altar represents different deities. Here’s a shot taken of the inner altar:

A close up of the food… You might notice the predominant theme of the colours red and pink. Red is a colour often used in festivities because it represents good things - happiness, prosperity and luck. Pink is also used because of its closeness to the colour red and is an accepted replacement where red is not available.

Personally, I’ve never been terribly fond of the pink and red combination because I feel they clash but it makes the older generation happy. Some good tips if you want to make an elderly Chinese person happy - just wear red, or any of its derivatives. Alternatively, if red’s not your colour, just make sure you’re not wearing black or they’ll think you’re planning their funeral.

These are special incense sticks for the inner altar. The normal ones are usually the thickness of a toothpick. I’ve been told that when the incense is for a deity, you have to give three sticks, but for a dead relative, you only use one.

For the superstitious, the numbers on the middle incense stick can be used as lucky numbers for a lottery. Locally, we have lotteries that require the selection of four numbers so these numbers are recorded for the evening’s lottery draw. I’m not sure if that’s part of the tradition or just a gambler’s desire to get lucky…

Below is a shot of the outer altar with the food that everyone will be feasting on later. I presume it is laid out before the deity for some sort of blessing, or is it a sacrifice? Either way, it stays there until the shiny bits of paper are all burnt before we start feasting.

Some closer shots of the food… The yellow rice is often served during Chinese New Year and it is believed that eating it brings prosperity. The colour yellow is often linked with gold and wealth, hence it is the next most favoured colour after red. My MIL believes that if you attend a New Year party and you see a dish of this rice, you should always take a little serve of it.

More food for the party later on…

Check this out… this deity drinks guinness and smokes, too!

The events are concluded with the usual bonfire of burning shiny bits of paper that represent a monetary sacrifice to the deities.

After which, everybody gets to tuck into a food fest and the factory is officially closed for the New Year.