Lowaicue
英語在香港
Chinese New Year
And so we move, all too swiftly, from Christmas, through New Year until we find ourselves on the doorstep of the Chinese New Year, the Year of the Rabbit. Firecrackers (illegal since the 60s) are being smuggled into the territory under the watchful eye of the local police (!) and brought in van loads to the villages that house a substantial part of Hong Kong population. Villages close to me seem to compete, with the winning village setting off twenty-eight minutes of non-stop firecrackers last year!
Decorations, slightly modified with the substitution of rabbits for Santa Clauses and Angels, flash back into life and children look forward to the receipt of Lai See from all and sundry. My friend’s daughter, six last year, received just over HK$7,000.00!!!
Unlike Christmas with its over indulgence in eating drinking and making merry, Chinese New Year is all about eating, eating and more eating. Hardly a day goes by without an invitation to lunch or dinner. On Monday it was lunch, Tuesday was dinner, Thursday was lunch at a Vietnamese restaurant and yesterday double booked (how very careless of me) for lunch and an invitation for dinner from which I excused myself.
A call that pierced my late afternoon nap was an invitation to dinner on Tuesday (the last working day before New Year’s Eve) in with my ‘sort of’ employer. Just the two of us at, and this came as a surprise, her newly acquired restaurant!
Meanwhile we have a sort of obligation to pay lip service at home with a round segmented lacquer bowl called a ‘Chun Hap’ (Chun = ‘all sorts’ or ‘little bits’ and ‘hap’ = box ) filled with sweets and nuts and red coloured melon seeds for all who might call.
I always get confused by the order of things despite my long sojurn here. Should we wish ‘Happy New Year’ before the celebration or after? One friend tells me that it should be afterwards, others say it should be before. Others simply shrug and say that as we are foreigners we will never understand so we should do as we choose. Then there is the Lai See. Small red packets containing ten or twenty dollars to be given, by both hands and a slight bow, to the man on the gate, the man in the lift lobby, the lady who always smiles as she works her supermarket till, and a hundred dollars to each of the ever-growing band of young children brought into the world by friends with nothing better to do.
But New Year has its benefits. For a few hours, just a few very special hours on the first day of new year, Hong Kong is quiet. Very quiet. Beautifully quiet. The beaches are empty the constant clatter of construction takes a huge breath and settles into a brief but heavenly rest.
On the days before New Year houses will be thoroughly cleaned, children will be given their new clothes and people will wash their hair so the new year starts clean in all respects. Some people boil the leaves of the pomelo and pour the liquid over themselves for good health – after it has cooled!
By early afternoon, when people have tired of Mah Jongg and children are bored with sitting still, it all starts again, roads ripped out and replaced, builders start building, tunnellers tunnel, drivers drive and stall holders shout their wares. There will be no more peace until next year! But it keeps us young!
This year Wednesday is New Year’s Eve and a holiday, Thursday is the first day. That is when families visit the father’s family for dinner, Friday will be day two and everyone visits mother’s family for another, often identical, dinner.
I used to wonder what happened in my sales manager’s family since his father had two wives and he, therefore, had two mothers of equal standing!
Day three is usually spent at home since it is the day on which everyone argues! Quite how they do this I do not know. Do they save arguments up throughout the year for the one big fight?
The giving of Lai See comes to an end, mercifully, on the fifteenth day, by which time more money has been given to children and unmarried ladies, to make the trusts set up by the Gates’ look almost niggardly.
Comments always appreciated
And so we move, all too swiftly, from Christmas, through New Year until we find ourselves on the doorstep of the Chinese New Year, the Year of the Rabbit. Firecrackers (illegal since the 60s) are being smuggled into the territory under the watchful eye of the local police (!) and brought in van loads to the villages that house a substantial part of Hong Kong population. Villages close to me seem to compete, with the winning village setting off twenty-eight minutes of non-stop firecrackers last year!
Decorations, slightly modified with the substitution of rabbits for Santa Clauses and Angels, flash back into life and children look forward to the receipt of Lai See from all and sundry. My friend’s daughter, six last year, received just over HK$7,000.00!!!
Unlike Christmas with its over indulgence in eating drinking and making merry, Chinese New Year is all about eating, eating and more eating. Hardly a day goes by without an invitation to lunch or dinner. On Monday it was lunch, Tuesday was dinner, Thursday was lunch at a Vietnamese restaurant and yesterday double booked (how very careless of me) for lunch and an invitation for dinner from which I excused myself.
A call that pierced my late afternoon nap was an invitation to dinner on Tuesday (the last working day before New Year’s Eve) in with my ‘sort of’ employer. Just the two of us at, and this came as a surprise, her newly acquired restaurant!
Meanwhile we have a sort of obligation to pay lip service at home with a round segmented lacquer bowl called a ‘Chun Hap’ (Chun = ‘all sorts’ or ‘little bits’ and ‘hap’ = box ) filled with sweets and nuts and red coloured melon seeds for all who might call.
I always get confused by the order of things despite my long sojurn here. Should we wish ‘Happy New Year’ before the celebration or after? One friend tells me that it should be afterwards, others say it should be before. Others simply shrug and say that as we are foreigners we will never understand so we should do as we choose. Then there is the Lai See. Small red packets containing ten or twenty dollars to be given, by both hands and a slight bow, to the man on the gate, the man in the lift lobby, the lady who always smiles as she works her supermarket till, and a hundred dollars to each of the ever-growing band of young children brought into the world by friends with nothing better to do.
But New Year has its benefits. For a few hours, just a few very special hours on the first day of new year, Hong Kong is quiet. Very quiet. Beautifully quiet. The beaches are empty the constant clatter of construction takes a huge breath and settles into a brief but heavenly rest.
On the days before New Year houses will be thoroughly cleaned, children will be given their new clothes and people will wash their hair so the new year starts clean in all respects. Some people boil the leaves of the pomelo and pour the liquid over themselves for good health – after it has cooled!
By early afternoon, when people have tired of Mah Jongg and children are bored with sitting still, it all starts again, roads ripped out and replaced, builders start building, tunnellers tunnel, drivers drive and stall holders shout their wares. There will be no more peace until next year! But it keeps us young!
This year Wednesday is New Year’s Eve and a holiday, Thursday is the first day. That is when families visit the father’s family for dinner, Friday will be day two and everyone visits mother’s family for another, often identical, dinner.
I used to wonder what happened in my sales manager’s family since his father had two wives and he, therefore, had two mothers of equal standing!
Day three is usually spent at home since it is the day on which everyone argues! Quite how they do this I do not know. Do they save arguments up throughout the year for the one big fight?
The giving of Lai See comes to an end, mercifully, on the fifteenth day, by which time more money has been given to children and unmarried ladies, to make the trusts set up by the Gates’ look almost niggardly.
Comments always appreciated
