A festival celebrated at my place
“ Dong dong dong qiang……” I was dreaming about fighting demons with my super power at that moment. Suddenly my dream vanished and what remained in my mind was, “Today is Chinese New Year Eve”. Well, honestly I was not expecting anything from Chinese New Year except a one-week holiday and the most welcomed “ang pao”. For me, celebrating Chinese New Year was just a boring thing to do. I say this based on a few pieces of evidence.
What my family did on Chinese New Year Eve was clean up the layer of dust had been around for a year, change curtains and decorate the house. After that, we changed into new outfits to go back to my father’s hometown-Lenggong, Perak. The journey took about one and a half hours. When we reached there, we greet our elders and they gave my two sisters and me “ang pao”. For the next hour, everyone watched television. Feeling like there was a crow flying in the house, the weird atmosphere continued until my aunt asked all of us to have the “reunion dinner”. After the reunion dinner, my family and I went back to Ipoh. We did not stay overnight because we thought that was unnecessary.
The Chinese New Year Eve ended meaninglessly.
According to our family tradition, children with only get their “ang pau” from their parents on the first day of the Chinese New Year. Of course, my sister and I got our “ang pau” from our parents. Then, again we sat at the living room and watched television shows. Luckily, I could go online and surf the net instead of watching those boring television shows. At around 5pm, mum drove us to Menglembu to visit my uncle. We had our dinner and we went back to our home after some time.
Another boring day had passed.
The next day was the second day of Chinese New year which we called “Chu Er”. As usual, I woke up to the annoying Chinese New Year song which had been played for about hundred times. Unfortunately, when I cleaned up myself in the bathroom, I broke the mirror. Then, for the following 30 minutes, I listened to the lecture delivered by Mrs. Lee, who is my mum. She kept babbling about how badly I broke the rules and I chased the God of Prosperity away. That is why I dislike Chinese New Year, I whispered. “Later, your aunt will stop by for a visit. You’d better behave yourself”, mum said.
At about 7pm in the evening, my aunt arrived. My aunt lives in Kuantan with her husband and two children. From what I knew, she had two children, a three years old boy named John and a six years old girl named Elizabeth. I had not see them for three years. I greeted them with the four words “Gong Xi Fa Cai”, and then I saw two little children “pop out” from behind my aunt. We laughed and my first thought of them was, “How beautiful they are!” The two children’s faces were so innocent and so beautiful. We moved inside the house, I held the three year old boy in my arm, oh my God, he was so cute! I asked him a simple question, “Do you like Chinese New Year?”, “Yes!” he answered. I asked him why and he answered slowly, “because I…… want to celebrate Chi……Chinese New Year with grand……grandmother”. “Time to go back!” My aunty said. They got into the car, and the two little children waved at us. Soon, they were gone.
I sat quietly in my room, thinking about what John had said to me. He said he liked to come back to Ipoh to celebrate Chinese New Year with his grandmother. Eventually I figured out what he was trying to say. He said he wanted to gather around with his family. This is what Chinese New Year means. It is not just about getting ang pau from elders. It is about a reunion of family members. This festival is meant to give us a chance to spend some time with family. That night, I heard my neighbours playing firecrackers and my mum was playing that song again. But this time, I did not feel any of the usual annoyance anymore. That was a lovely night.
That day was such a beautiful day……
By 193441
