A celebration to yearn for

Some had asked us, how was our Chinese New Year celebration in UK. To be honest about it, there is nothing to shout about. There was no loud CNY music from Astro’s Wah Lai Toi which continuously reminds you about the celebration. Nor was there any ‘yee sang’ available for people to toss their food up just as a sign of better luck and prosperity.

To simply describe it, it was a subtle CNY celebration. On the eve of CNY, Kay and I had a simple meal while watching the friendly football match between England and Switzerland (with England wining the game with 2:1) on the TV. Nothing fantastic, but least it’s a mini reunion dinner for both of us. On the first day of CNY, we started our morning with phone calls back home to our families and after that, I was back to work in the office. So, if you are complaining about not wanting to go back to work/ school after your holidays, please do stop because you could have been in a far worst position that you are.

A colleague of mine recently asked how we celebrate CNY in Malaysia. I was lost of words for a minute and thought hard about it. In fact, the lack of atmosphere for two consecutive years in UK had almost made me forgot how a CNY celebration was like in the first place. I struggled at first but I managed to put up the following description:-

Chinese New Year is best described as a celebration where people (family and friends) gather and eat together for the next 15 days until ‘Chap Goh Meh’ (the last day of Chinese New Year). That’s right! It’s all about eating. Of course, during the in-between meal time when everyone is digesting from the heavy consumption of food, the singles and children would make their rounds amongst the married couple to wish them ‘Happy Chinese New Year’ so that in return they would be given a ‘ang pow’, a red packet with money inside as a sign of good luck and prosperity to the receiving end. Personally, people care more of the monetary value rather than believe of luck these days.

As most of the Chinese people has the knack of business sense, they will attempt to increase the monetary value of their ‘ang pow’ by engaging in ‘high risk’ investing (i.e gambling). Same goes to those who had extended ‘ang pow’ who wished to recouped the monies given out due to their traditional responsibilities.

The atmosphere is always noisy. There is always this continuous irritating song played on the TV about ‘God of Wealth’ is coming to town (similar to Santa Clause is coming to town song but the Chinese version). Kids visiting your home sometimes leave a trail of noise and destruction just to join in the festive mood. Even the grown ups would not leave you alone as they bombard you with tones of questions such as “When are you getting married” (for the singles) or “When are you going to have a child” (for the newly wed).

And that is what CNY celebration is all about, from my perspective.

After putting through a summarised version of CNY to my colleague, I realised that I am more than willing to forgo the savings I had made from not giving out ‘ang pow’ (and that is shit load lot of money), just to be with my families and friends. I guess it’s only after I experienced the subtle celebration that I really appreciate CNY rather than assuming that it was just another public holiday. Let’s hope next year we could be back home to celebrate CNY with everyone.

Gong Xi Fa Chai everyone. Best wishes to all of you.