Saturday, 21 January 2012

Chinese New Year

Hey guys! it's been a long time since I've posted anything. So I've decided to post something about a special occasions that is widely celebrated in Singapore. 
Currently, it is Chinese New years' eve, tomorrow is the real Chinese new year. 


Every Chinese new year eve, families get together to have whats called a: Reunion Dinner. This, is when the whole extended family gets together and has dinner. Which is pretty rare, considering that people here work full time. 


Today, my family is having a reunion dinner at our house, as our grandparents and cousins will be flying in from Jakarta. My grandma has taken a LOT of effort into this. For example, she has made satay at least a week or so ago, which is this: if you haven't already known../
My grandma has also been helping cleaning up the house. And my dad, as usual, is as enthusiastic as ever,:P to throw away unused or useless items. Every chinese new year, it is a tradition for every family to clean up the house, as they believe, new year means new things and a cleaner house. 
This also means, if you have not guessed, new clothes. This CNY, we have all bought new clothes, from Jakarta, coz we just recently went last december. 

In CNY, people also visit other peoples' houses. This is a happy event for kids, especially, and married couple, might go bankrupt. Kids, or unmarried ppl, will recieve a red packet, or in chinese: hong bao. 
So, lucky the unmarried ppl/kids, and unlucky married adults. 
When people visit houses, it is a tradition to exchange oranges, usually 2. What I mean by exchange, is you give 2 to the family you visit, and in exchange, you get 2 new ones back. 
So every CNY  my mom has to buy a big box of mandarin oranges.
 I find this a little strange. coz you can simply buy 2, then keep exchanging it with people, but anyways.
Also, when you visit someones' house. You get to eat a ton of CNY goodies. these include:
Pineapple Tarts

Love Letters

Kue Bangkit.


Honey corn-Flakes
Kue Lapis




There's definitely more than these mere few. I just can't be bothered to remember them all. Sorry bout that.  

I know this post is getting sorta long, but hang on there, you'll live.

During reunion dinner, families also do this thing called 'Yu Seng" which is:



This is a compilation of many raw ingredients, and the good chips thingy. So technically, you use chopsticks, and as a whole family, you lift the ingredients up and mix them together. Here's a video about that.




I guess that's about it. anyways, my fingers are sore now.

Happy Chinese New Year
and
Gong Xi Fa Cai


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