The Chinese New Year came and went. All the hassle of buying new clothes, making cookies and spring cleaning the house amongst many other rituals just sizzled off after Chap Goh Meh.
Now it is back to normal but not without any anticipation for another Chinese festivity....the 'All Souls Day' some time towards the end of March.
In reflection, like every Chinese New Year, I would get so 'pissed off' by certain people as regards the tradition of giving the red packets. Traditionally, young and unmarried children should be receiving them from their married elders. However, some elders were so stingy that they pretended to forget this and omitted one ang pow here and there, much to the dismay of the hopeful child. Besides, some very rich elders were so disappointing because their ang pows contained the least money of all.
Some people came with their friends' children and the host/hostess had to give ang pows to these children because traditionally on Chinese New Year, we should be generous and this kind of behaviour would bring much blessings to the family. Then there was this wait and see attitude. Waiting for who to make the first move in giving the ang pows so that we would know what to do next. As I said some elders did not give to every deserving child. There was one group who came and collected from every auntie but left giving ang pows to only two children out of eight.
Later, there was checking of how much was the content and a quick mental arithmetic calculation to determine how many to give in return and how much in each red packet. Nobody wants to 'lose' that much. Talk about CNY spirit....but some people were just taking advantage like the one who brought along friends' children and then pocketing the red packets himself. It was almost as much a day's pay for a labourer!
Let him be you might say but .....those were the bad antics during the Chinese New Year!
Now it is back to normal but not without any anticipation for another Chinese festivity....the 'All Souls Day' some time towards the end of March.
In reflection, like every Chinese New Year, I would get so 'pissed off' by certain people as regards the tradition of giving the red packets. Traditionally, young and unmarried children should be receiving them from their married elders. However, some elders were so stingy that they pretended to forget this and omitted one ang pow here and there, much to the dismay of the hopeful child. Besides, some very rich elders were so disappointing because their ang pows contained the least money of all.
Some people came with their friends' children and the host/hostess had to give ang pows to these children because traditionally on Chinese New Year, we should be generous and this kind of behaviour would bring much blessings to the family. Then there was this wait and see attitude. Waiting for who to make the first move in giving the ang pows so that we would know what to do next. As I said some elders did not give to every deserving child. There was one group who came and collected from every auntie but left giving ang pows to only two children out of eight.
Later, there was checking of how much was the content and a quick mental arithmetic calculation to determine how many to give in return and how much in each red packet. Nobody wants to 'lose' that much. Talk about CNY spirit....but some people were just taking advantage like the one who brought along friends' children and then pocketing the red packets himself. It was almost as much a day's pay for a labourer!
Let him be you might say but .....those were the bad antics during the Chinese New Year!
