How CNY Has Changed For Me

This is my second CNY as a married woman. Oh how it has changed for me, and how in these times I’d miss home do much.

Maybe it’s the festive thingy that makes me miss the good fun, the yearly interactions with my cousins, the good good food, the atmosphere and everything else.

Don’t get me wrong. Celebrating in Singapore is nice, my in laws has a simpler way of celebrating. And we do our visitings. But it’s just different, I guess.

Typically in Malaysia, CNY will look like this.

I’d reach KL on the eve of the holidays. My parents will then do some banking stuff and whatever pockets of time we have will be used to savour all the favorite foods like bak kut teh, hokkien mee, char siew noodles, etc etc that we loved since when we are young. It’s pretty rush sometimes and temperature in KL can be pretty scorching hot, as it’s somehow less humid there.

Then we would go to our grandparents home, prepare for dinner, do some catch up on family gossips etc. haha! It’s funny when we hear thing from grandparents sometimes.. Cuz you really have no idea how current their “current affairs” are. Haha!

After dinner will be our annual night out with the cousins. We’d find somewhere to chill, drink an chat bout out lives. It’s such a bliss because we get to talk bout our own lives without the peering adults. And the adults often forget the kids are now like 30 yrs old? Hahah!

We will not usually get ourselves drunk because we will need to be home by 11pm to prepare for the prayer session to welcome CNY. It’s a whole ritual thingy (mostly done) by the grandma. The kids just follow instructions. And yeah, kids means me and my cousins.

So come first day of CNY we’d awake to home brewed thick coffee and sticky cakes made by my paternal grandma. And the first meal of the new year is usually vegetarian at their place.

Before that, early in the morning when we meet any family members we would greet with a loud “gong hey fatt Choy”! Anyone who is too soft will be ‘chided’… Some adults think its no manners to be not greeted loud and clear. And then kids will to queue up need to say some nice things before they get their angpaos. So it could be wishing people wealth or wishing the aunties prettiness or elders longevity and health. Such atmosphere is really wonderful.

Then after lunch, we would then go to my maternal relatives place. Of course there will be the boring bits where we have all the waiting, the dozing offs, the ice breaking then small talks and catching up. But food was always really wonderful and fantastic! There would be a myriad of food like fish, prawns, cuttlefish, vegetable, soup, etc etc that’s sooooo tasty and I really do miss my hometown food. Maybe I’ve grown to my mum’s cooking, that’s why going to my maternal relatives is always lovely because the food is just worth the wait!

The second day of CNY will be spent with my paternal grandparents. There will be a huge buffet of food that we all got to finish. Somehow it has evolved to be a annual competition to finish the food. Lol!

Then after lunch, there will be streams of relatives coming in. Where we kids will then retreat to our own space. In recent years when we have grown up, CNY Day 2 is a long awaited day because we will all drink till we drop. Beer, liquor, wine etc etc will be served. Uncles and aunties and cousins will then drink together and get drunk together in broad daylight.

Well it’s not something “nice” and often we frown upon it ourselves… Like after alls over and done, we’d comment “our family is crazy” and we’d do it all over again the next year! Hahah! But the atmosphere is really wonderful. Its really nice when we let our hair down and just have fun.

So thats a round up of what I’ve missed for my CNY. Perhaps with my upcoming little dragon boy (if it’s really a boy), I’d wanna teach him to greet elders the way we were taught. And not be shy. Somehow the atmosphere is really created by the parents and carried on by the kids.

Maybe it’s really the difference in celebration culture that made me missed my hometown do much during the festive season.

But still GONG XI FA CAI one and all! May all evil be warded off and may we meet more lucky stars; may this year bless us with smooth sailing route to finding our fortune; and may we all get rich (in monetary and non-monetary terms la!)!

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