Chinese New Year

2006 (that the Western calendar…what year is it in Chinese calendar?)…Year of the dog….hmmm…I’m not sure what element is it this year….last year was the golden rooster….i’m a rooster….the golden rooster…hehehehe…and I’m coming home this year…I’m not celebrating Chinese new year, but I have lots of Chinese friend from my school days…primary and secondary school to be exact.

People say that you’ll get a lot of angpow (that red packet filled with money) during Chinese new year….but I never get any…not even RM1. why? All my Chinese friend were not married yet and not eligible yet to give any…huhuhuh…cheh.

Near my kampong, there is a housing area that majority are populated by Chinese residents…so when it comes to Chinese new year…the placed will be cramped with car parked alongside the road during the eve of Chinese new year. They have their family get together dinner. This is a must for everybody…but I think only for close family. Just like hari raya, where all the families and relatives comes together gether after the prayer. It was only the morning after you’ll see the celebration…all the firecrackers…not fireworks (who would lit fireworks in day light?)…the lion dance..hahahah…when we were kids…we used to called the lion dance “tung-che”…it come from the sound of drum beat and whatever they use to make the lion dance…normally the lion would dance in a pair….although some have only one…I don’t understand what were the significant of using lion instead of something else…because I think lions are only to be found in African savannah. We were always being told bout this “nien” monster and how the villagers keep the monster away by using firecracker (I like the new advert on Chinese new year, the boy uses his firecracker ringing tone to mimic the sound of firecracker to kept the nien away….so advance la….)

Lion will dance to get the…I don’t what Chinese call it, but I know there’s angpow in it…after that they will lit up the firecracker….and the excitement begins for me and my fellow friends…as we will celebrate it also…and after it all done, we strip search the area for un-exploded firecracker…huhuhuhu…..never get any angpow la….but since the regulation of forbidding firecracker to be played publicly now..i guess that the celebration will go to silent mode…eventhough its their tradition, but they do understand the danger of that thing and minimize the use of it….very different during hari raya, where our own genius a.k.a bomb expert wannabe experimenting their own version of “meriam buluh” @ bamboo cannon…and using themselves as the lab rat…huhuhuh…a celebration you will have without 1 or 2 finger….and kept on playing it during the next hari raya….i just don’t understand it la…

But now, no more scavenging for firecracker….too old for it already...but life’s so boring without it…thanks to ancient Chinese for introducing firecracker to the world….

Chinese new year normally lasted for about two weeks…within that time, visiting a friend would be consider special and sometimes might get an angpow…the last day would be called “chap goh meh”…(did I misspell it)....no angpow after that…but I think, this year I would get the first real red packet (not hari raya one)…since majority of the member in PERSATUAN PEMANDU BAS SEKOLAH BINTULU celebrate this….wahhh…kaya2….

(I think malay celebration adapt most of other celebration have….firecracker from Chinese…angpow also from Chinese...”lampu punjut” might be from deepavalli….what else haaa?....ever wonder how the original malay celebration look like?)