All around the
world where there is a large Chinese community, there will be an exodus of
people travelling back to their hometowns in the tradition of balik kampung during the pre-Lunar New
Year days.
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| Cherished pets dressed up to welcome the Lunar New Year of the Dog |
As we consider the
concept of balik kampung where
families join their elders to celebrate Hari Raya Aidilfitri, it’s easy to draw
a parallel with how the Chinese have a tradition of sitting down to a family
reunion dinner on the eve of the Lunar New Year.
From a very young
age, I used to look forward to the Lunar New Year because it was that time of
year when cousins meet again to play and on the first day of the lunar calendar,
we would dress up in new outfits and receive red packets filled with fortune
money!
As a child, I did
not question why our family went to Ah
Kong or mum’s father’s house for the reunion dinner instead of going to
dad’s father’s house.
It was much later,
when I learnt about the tradition of sons and their wives and families going to
their father’s house for the annual reunion dinner that I finally figured it
out.
According to
Chinese tradition, a married woman would join her husband and in-laws for the
reunion dinner and will not visit her own parents until after the dawn of the
lunar new year.
It was an
eye-opening discovery for me when I realised that we did not have any reunion dinner
with dad’s parents simply because he did not have any living family members.
So for our family,
it was easy to balik kampung for the
Lunar New Year because we lived just a driving distance away from Ah Kong’s
house at No. 154 Jalan Ngee Heng.
But for those who
lived away from hometowns, they must plan ahead for the journey, taking into
consideration the packing of fresh and cooked food, new clothes and travel
plans like making transport reservations or getting the car ready for
self-driving.
This entire
exercise is similar to how families would return to their hometowns to
celebrate Hari Raya Aidilfitri with their elders. The only difference may
probably be their destinations because many married Malay couples have an
agreement to balik kampung for Hari
Raya to either spouse’s parents’ homes on alternate years!
.
. .
While we share the
same Gregorian calendar – a solar calendar system that evolved from the lunar
calendar – with the world, the Chinese have a traditional lunar calendar based
on the monthly cycles of the moon’s phases.
According
to Chinese astrology, the lunar calendar follows a 12-year cycle where each year is represented by an animal so
those born in those years are reputed to inherit the said animal’s attributes.
During
my secondary school days, I discovered the astrological signs when I listened
to my classmates discussing their horoscopes and which zodiac sign (based on
birth month!) they were born under.
It
was much later that I learnt that the Western zodiac was unlike that of the
Chinese which runs in a 12-year cycle, beginning with the Year of the Rat, followed
by Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Goat, Monkey, Rooster, Dog and
ending with the Year of the Pig.
In
recent years, as Chinese local and cable television channels broadcast more
shows and advertisements to welcome the coming Lunar New Year, the came up with
creative mascots or animal icons that represented the coming animal year.
I remember a news
report from Hong Kong in the previous Year of the Dog (12 years ago!) which
reminded people to be mindful about getting a puppy for a pet for the Lunar New
Year because in reality, it means a life-long commitment to care for the pet.
This friendly
reminder from the animal-loving community, warned of abandoned pet dogs later
in the year when puppies out-grew their cuteness and owners could not keep up the
responsibility of caring for them!
.
. .
While the Chinese
practice a host of do’s and don’ts to ensure the start of a better year, one of
their traditional rituals is to set off firecrackers at the stroke of midnight
on the eve of the Lunar New Year which originally, aimed to scare away evil
spirits.
In Chinese
folklore, a monster named Nian (Year)
would prowl the village to destroy homes and eat villagers on each New Year’s
Eve, so the loud explosions were made to scare aware this horrible monster!
As most
traditional Chinese tend to keep this practice, it was like a war-zone in Chinese
neighbourhoods where ear-shattering firecrackers assaulted our ears and scared
the daylights out of our pets.
Meanwhile,
the Chinese would not sweep the red paper from the firecrackers away as the act
of sweeping on this auspicious day was like sweeping wealth away!
.
. .
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| Red packets in various creative designs including one [Center] that features a dog to commemorate the Lunar Year of the Dog |
One
of my favourite Lunar New Year traditions must be the tradition of presenting
red packets or hong pau (Cantonese)
filled with fortune money (lai see).
I was taught that it’s not about the contents of the packet but the symbolism
of the Red packet.
In
Chinese culture, Red is an auspicious colour as it symbolises good fortune, joy
and happiness. It is the colour worn by traditional brides, as in the kwa or qipao, as an auspicious colour to
ward off evil.
In
traditional Chinese colour symbolism, Red generally represents vitality,
celebration and fertility.
So
Lunar New Year decorations are mostly in Red and Gold as these colours are
associated with wealth and prosperity.
Some
families decorate their homes with Chinese couplets written in Chinese calligraphy
to adorn their doorposts and main door.
On
the front door, the Chinese character for “Fook” which means ‘good fortune’ is often deliberately displayed
upside-down!
Why? It’s because the
pronunciation of the word, upside-down (tow)
sounds like ‘arrive.’ So the upside-down position of the Chinese character
“Fook” reads as “Fook Tow”
(Cantonese) which has the auspicious meaning of, ‘good fortune arrives!’
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| A platter of prosperity Yee Sang being served by a non-Chinese member of the serving staff |
Good
fortune is always welcome so the tradition of tossing the prosperity Yee Sang salad has also been adopted
here for Lunar New Year events.
By
now, people in our multi-cultural community are already familiar with the art
of tossing and eating Yee Sang. Even the non-Chinese serving staff are familiar
with the sequence of topping the salad with the various auspicious ingredients.
But
my request to restaurants which serve Yee Sang is to train your serving staff
to utter the appropriate phrases as they add the ingredients to the platter in
order to present a complete Lo Hei
(toss for prosperity) experience!
Simple
translations of the auspicious Chinese phrases can be paraphrased and learnt in
English and even Malay, to make the presentation more meaningful – and
educational – for diners from every culture.
Believe
me, your restaurant will certainly have an added edge over the others!
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| Cookies created with cute puppy faces! |
To
celebrate this Year of the Dog, chefs have exceeded expectations by creatively
arranging the vegetables on the salad platter to resemble the image of a cute
dog or puppy!
Similarly,
bakers also created batches of biscuits designed in cute puppy faces.
But
there’s no need to stretch the imagination or be overly sensitive at the
appalling idea of eating a dog or pup because these food presentations are but an
arty display of the baker’s or chef’s creativity.
.
. .
Having lived
together for decades, the practice of letting off loud explosions at the stroke
of midnight on Lunar New Year’s eve had inadvertently been adopted by every
race group in our multi-cultural community.
I don’t think we
needed to ward off evil but letting off fireworks at midnight in the New Year
tradition seems to be normal practice for every festival here.
Even while the meriam buluh (bamboo cannon) remains a traditional favourite in Malay kampungs, a range of fireworks and
explosions help to announce the dawn of the various annual festivals in our
community.
In the same way,
the Chinese tradition of giving Red packets is now practiced by the other communities by using Green packets for Raya and Purple
packets for Deepavali.
While giving duit Raya has always been a tradition, a
monetary gift presented in a decorated packet seems to be an accepted norm now.
. . .
. . .
The range of
cookies we enjoy during the Lunar New Year are not unlike the cookies we eat at
Hari Raya, simply because some of the best pineapple tarts served during the
Lunar New Year, are made by Malay vendors/bakers!
It’s interesting
to see that in many homes besides cookies, there are traditional crisps like
spicy kerepek ubi, kueh Ros, rempeyek and even muruku
served along with Lunar New Year staples like pineapple tarts and Mandarin
oranges!
If
we looked a little closer, we will soon discover that after more than 60 years
as a nation, there are indeed so much more that we already share that we even forgot
that a food item or a tradition, had its origins in another culture.
So
in spite of our cultural diversity, let’s seek unity for our common good.
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