 |
| My niece C. |
Every year, the weeks and days leading to CNY is the busiest for me.
I remembered when we were living at Block 89, Zion Road (now demolished), we had to do spring cleaning, washings, house-keeping and removing unwanted stuff. We had no maid.
I always had a hard time because it's difficult to let go of old stuff & often gotten scoldings from my mum for hiding them.
And our kitchen sink always choked during this period & caused the whole kitchen to flood with stinky water. I had to stretch my arm into the sink hole to clear the debris.
I was always worried that my arm would get stuck & the civil defence had to be called in to help me get out of the hole.
Previously, I saw my day did it.
So when he became old, I took over this "dirty job".
On the eve of CNY, after our reunion dinner, I would make a trip to Chinatown to pick up cheap stuff. The later I went, the cheaper the stuff become as every hawker wanted to clear their goods before calling it a day.
Now, I don't do it as the overly crowding impedes my movement.
Just before midnight, I would visit the Kwan Im temple at waterloo street to pray for good health and fortune for the family.
Then I would walk a few kilometres home as the bus & public transport would have stopped operation by this hour.
Now I don't do it at midnight but just before dawn when there is less people.
On the first day of CNY, we would wake up and greet and serve our parents with chinese tea before we receive our "hong bao" (red-packets). Till these days, I still keep some of them for memory sake even though our parents had since passed on. This was our tradition for years.
These days, children need to be coerced to say Chinese greetings and adults are so eager to give out their "hong bao" even if the kids say nothing.
Sigh ! Old tradition is slowly disappearing and be forgotten in time to come.
For the coming
year of the wooden goat, I wish everyone :
Better
peace, more happiness & good fortune.
No comments:
Post a Comment