♥ Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Assignment 3(a): Chinese Lunar New Year
A festival that my family and I celebrated together would be the Chinese Lunar New Year. On the Chinese Lunar New Year Eve, my family and I, together with my paternal relatives, had reunion dinner at my house.
As usual, we had steamboat. Having steamboat is what we have for reunion dinner annually, and it has become some sort of a tradition, but it never bores me and instead, somewhat, it excites me and I always look forward to it.
On the night of the Chinese New Year Eve, after my paternal relatives left my house, my family and I tuned in to Channel 5 and 8 on the television. We watched the countdown to the Chinese New Year. As a Chinese tradition, children are expected to stay up late at night to perpetuate the life expectancy of the elderly. Therefore, my siblings and I stayed up until 3 am the next morning. We spent the time watching television programmes.
On the first day of Chinese New Year, my family woke up around 10 am in the morning. We got changed into our new year clothings we bought and left home to my aunt’s house for vegetarian food. For your information, it is a Chinese practice to have vegetarian food on the first day of Chinese New Year. The foods my aunt whip up is always very delicious and I never fail to have more than one serving. After having the sumptuous food at my aunt’s house, we headed to my maternal uncle’s house for dinner- vegetarian food, once again. During the journey, I managed to catch some sleep as I was feeling sleepy having to wake up early after a long night the day before.
My maternal relatives were invited to my maternal uncle’s house, and therefore I saw many relatives there. We chatted and watched a movie, a DVD that one of my uncles brought for us to view. After we left my uncle’s house, we headed home. I was extremely exhausted but contented that I got plenty of red packets!
As usual, we had steamboat. Having steamboat is what we have for reunion dinner annually, and it has become some sort of a tradition, but it never bores me and instead, somewhat, it excites me and I always look forward to it.
On the night of the Chinese New Year Eve, after my paternal relatives left my house, my family and I tuned in to Channel 5 and 8 on the television. We watched the countdown to the Chinese New Year. As a Chinese tradition, children are expected to stay up late at night to perpetuate the life expectancy of the elderly. Therefore, my siblings and I stayed up until 3 am the next morning. We spent the time watching television programmes.
On the first day of Chinese New Year, my family woke up around 10 am in the morning. We got changed into our new year clothings we bought and left home to my aunt’s house for vegetarian food. For your information, it is a Chinese practice to have vegetarian food on the first day of Chinese New Year. The foods my aunt whip up is always very delicious and I never fail to have more than one serving. After having the sumptuous food at my aunt’s house, we headed to my maternal uncle’s house for dinner- vegetarian food, once again. During the journey, I managed to catch some sleep as I was feeling sleepy having to wake up early after a long night the day before.
My maternal relatives were invited to my maternal uncle’s house, and therefore I saw many relatives there. We chatted and watched a movie, a DVD that one of my uncles brought for us to view. After we left my uncle’s house, we headed home. I was extremely exhausted but contented that I got plenty of red packets!
The next few days of the Chinese Lunar New Year was spent visiting my relatives, and my family and I definitely ate plenty of Chinese New Year snacks and my siblings and I got more red packets!
To me, Chinese Lunar New Year is about getting together with the family and wishing one another well wishes, and also a time for the family to bond together to enhance in family relationships. I had an enjoyable Chinese Lunar New Year 2009 and hope to have an even more enjoyable Chinese Lunar New Year in the years to come!
-Chin Yi Ling (3) 2E7
Blogged @ 8:18 PM
