From Little Kids, Parents and
Grandparents,
Everybody has his/her Rituals to Follow
But it's a lot of JOY
Here I will share with you a lot of my childhood memories of the Chinese New Year which are very similar
to most Chinese of how to celebrate this big festival.
But why is it the quietest day? Because all
stores close from today onwards until the 4th day. In the last 2 decades, a few restaurtants open. Otherwise,
the city looks like a "ghost town".
First thing when we woke up in the morning, we went to our parents
and greet them "Happy New Year".
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In return, they gave us each 2 red pocket monies. Then, we started to put on our new clothes and shoes.
By 10 o'clock
in the morning, we were in our grandparents' house (my father's side). Usually, there were about 20 people in
the house. Throughout the day, people came and went.
We had to greet everybody in the house "Kung
Hei Fat Choi" (Happy New Year). And, of course, we received more red pocket monies.
By noon, lunch was ready. I remembered that there were at least 12 people
around that big solid wood table with the lazy Susan in the middle. There were chicken, goose, fish, vegetables (called "Fat Choi" which represents prosperity) and
dried oysters, lettuce, Chinese New Year "cake" and many many more.
By 4 o'clock, we were ready to head over to our another grandparents' house (my mother's
side). There were not that many people over there. But our uncle and his family would be there. Our grandparents
let us to have candies out of the "Chun Hop" (a snack box). To be honest, Chinese New Year always gives us the best excuse to have candies, like kids
enjoy their candies in the Halloween :-)
My grandmother loved to cook. So, we always had another similar meal for
dinner.
By 9 o'clock at night, we were pretty much ready to head back home for the day.
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