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When I first read Derek’s post on 5 Traditions For A Stronger Family (and the follow-up post: Traditions: Simply Capturing Your Traditions), I was reminded of one of the most significant annual ethnic Chinese traditions: the Chinese Lunar New Year.
Since we are still in the 2 week celebration of the Chinese Lunar New Year; this being the Year of the Rat on the Chinese Astrology, by the way; I thought it was apt to write something about tradition, from a parent’s point of view.
As all ethnic Chinese know, the “reunion dinner” (as it is literally translated as) on the eve of the Chinese New Year, is one of the most significant events of the calendar. Immediate family members return home to have dinner with their elders- usually the parents. In my case, three generations are involved. Big feasts are prepared, I know in some families they include certain dishes that signify different meanings of well-wishes. Dinner is left-over “into the next year” signifying abundant food.
My mum has somewhat taken a simple path to preparing this feast in the last few years. Along with some expected dishes of braised mushrooms with broccoli, roast pork, etc, she prepares the ingredients available for self-serving / self-made handrolls of big spring rolls, and also getting take-away roti canai with its sauces as well as some homecooked curries to go with it. This “shortcut”; and some might even say non-traditional approach for a reunion dinner, is still quite well received nonetheless- There is enough to make 3 generations’ of happily-filled stomachs.
I am sure I have left out other gestures with symbolic meanings from the simple list above. But these are basically what I have been taught as a youngling on the significance of the dinner.
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While the ingredients is now somewhat different from expectations, this is one tradition which I know will be carried on for many many generations. Not that anyone is complaining about the ingredients- it really is the company that counts.
While I was growing up, Chinese New Year was a lot different compared to what the next generation is experiencing now. Not that I am expecting things to remain forever, just that during my time it felt a lot more “celebratory”.
For starters, there were firecrackers and fireworks and we played with them, days before the actual New Year day. Shopping involved not just for new clothes and tidbits but also for these contraband. The night air was filled with smells of burning joss sticks and burnt phosphor, our clothes dirty from sweat and ashes. My brothers and I would place fireworks on the ground and light the fuses and scramble for cover. Our pet Alsation would bite the burning / spinning fireworks like it was an alien invading Earth and his family, and get a bloody tongue / gums. We sometimes have to keep him in the back for his own good, against much complaining from him. My father then would bring out the 5-6 foot long firecrackers, find somewhere to hang the monstrosity, and do the light-scramble too. I’d be hiding in the backseat of the closest parked car, watching through the rear windscreen the minutes-long mini-explosions, dispersing all over our lawn the little bits of red paper that once wrapped the firecrackers. We’d leave them there for days; it does look kinda pretty against the green grass the next morning, but it is also a dead giveaway of our activities the night before. Cops would drop by and hassle us about it. I leave it to you to imagine how my father handled them!
When I was a little older I’d participate with my brothers and light the firecracker-rockets, wait for the fuse to get really short (yes we’d still be holding it in our hand!) and throw them upwards into the sky for it to then “lift off” even higher into the sky (as compared to simply lifting off from an empty bottle on the ground as instructed!) and watch it pop. Sometimes misjudgements meant that it flipped mid-air and launched itself down towards the ground where we’d again be scrambling for cover… Heh heh.
Today firecrackers and fireworks are banned for safety reasons. Understandable, but it’s still a pity. These are the memories of Chinese New Year during my childhood which will not be enjoyed by my kids- a tradition lost.
What are your family’s upheld traditions and “dropped” traditions?
Reunion dinner: My mom would have wanted to cook her own reunion dinner, but for the last 2 years she had had hers at a restaurant with my “new” family, this being that she is left with 2 kids at home and me and my in-laws and all would ask her to join us for the meal. And since we have to always watch the 2 boys, we take the easy way out to eat out and ta-pao the extra home. Still spill over to the new year, eh?
Fireworks: Before the ban on fireworks, my grandfather would buy a bag load from the market and we would enjoy picking up a new/ strange looking one to try it out, apart from the usual rockets and fountain-like ones. (Btw, we liked lighting the rockets and let it race down the drain too.) Well, those were the days.
Now my boys get all excited when we let them play with a few hand-held sparklers each night.
Moomykin’s last blog post..Toddler Troubleshooter
I forgot to mention that the above 2 pics are actually of respective tables: one the adults, the other the (next generation) kids.
That’s me in blue and red stripes, Mummee near me, and Caitlin between us muscling in on the yee-sang action, in her new red-polka-dotted dress!