Reflections 10: Chinese LOONEY New Year!

Boy, what a relief to get it over and done – to drag through the first two days of visitation for the Chinese New Year (CNY)! I wonder is it me or there are others out there who feels the same. I really LOATHE Chinese New Year! Gasp, I can’t believe I am saying this, but I wanna be true to myself.

I have come to a stage where I can’t help but feel I am into this pseudo celebration, not because I want to, but it is more of a customary obligation, a traditional baggage.

CNY, I can’t relate any significance to it any more. The auspicious greetings, the customary handing out of ang pows (red packets), they are all done because it has to, not because we want to. If I am berserk enough, I’ll just take a trip and not turn up at all for this occasion when come next year. You not Chinese? What Chinese? I see myself as Singaporean first!

When the CNY is near, hard as I try, you can’t get away from being reminded. Every super market, shopping mall and even hawker centres will incessantly blast the same sickening CNY tune! Unlike other festivals, the Chinese songs seemed louder than most festive songs when played. I know Chinese are loud. But loud also means boisterous, obnoxious and inconsiderate.

Over the years too, I noticed a phenomenon at our place here. Usually our Chinese neighbours would be out with their kids to greet each other. But for the first 15 days of the CNY, where we will have to give red packets to each other’s children, the kids are nowhere to be seen! Either we are too considerate to know that meeting each other, with kids in tow, would mean expenses for each other, or we are just stingy to want to give that red packet! I tend to go for the former reason.

It was not too long ago CNY was really a big thing!

Where every corner of the house must be cleaned – I remember my mum taking the broom to sweep the ceiling! Where all mattress covers, curtains, cushion covers are bought brand new. Where all of us get new sets of clothes, pants (tailor made mind you!), and shoes just for the New Year. Some claimed even new under wears – I don’t recall that! Where we bothered to string up and decorate the house with the greeting cards, and Chinese decorations, even using ang pows to make into Chinese lanterns to hang.

Then there was this great anticipation to let go the firecrackers come the stroke of the CNY midnight (Okay, I am old enough to live through that era!). Other than those rolls of crackers with their super big bangs, my personal favourite is the one that spins with sparks when lighted, and then it takes off, sometimes up to knee high, and it goes with a loud bang! Come to think of it, it was bloody dangerous but fun! Today it would have come under illegal possession of firearms and ordnance.

Year after year, I feel a dread to live up to this dreary obligation and to meet relatives, not that I don’t love them, but given a choice to have this long break and my own quiet time… The irony of it all, once you make the effort, the warmth, the catching up with one another, the laughter shared, and for some, only once this time of the year that we will ever get to see each other, somehow makes it all worthwhile.

Alas, I may not be that berserk after all! As it is, I am the eldest, big ‘kid’ amongst my siblings and cousins of my generation. I wonder (other than getting the traditional ang pows from the married me!), how the younger ones feel about this Chinese occasion.

One little gem I learned from this years’ CNY gathering, somewhere in our family bloodline, there is Mongolian ancestry! Apparently, our paternal grandma’s mum is of Mongolian origin. All my younger cousins knew about this – and I was the last to know!?!

Now, do Mongols celebrate Lunar New Year?

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