Tomorrow marks the last day of the Chinese New Year which is celebrated for 15 days. It is the night when the moon is full and at its brightest, a night made for love and romance. This is a very big celebration in Penang Island as there are many Hokkiens living there. Chap Goh Mei ((the 15th day in the Hokkien dialect) as it is called, will see single ladies observing the tradition of throwing mandarin oranges into the sea or lake or river, whichever is close by.
On these mandarins will be their names and contact numbers.
Eligible men will fish out these mandarins and contact the young ladies. From there, hopefully, friendships will be initiated with aspirations of something more permanent.
Apart from the excitement of throwing mandarins at night, during the day there will be lion and dragon dances, to the accompaniment of drums and fire crackers.
Fire crackers have been banned by the authorities but they are still burned for what is Chinese New Year without fire crackers?
The loud sounds of crackers exploding, leaving behind a carpet of red are auspicious and every Chinese household will have red decorations and lanterns as red is THE color, denoting Luck and Prosperity. Women and even men will be decked out in various shades of red.
Chinese temples are lighted up with hundreds of red lanterns and fireworks light up the skies.
The last day of the celebration of The Year of the Dragon will go out with a great bang.
Folks will breathe a sigh of relief as they can then buckle into the mundane routine of “normal” life once more. No more gorging on food at the many “open houses”, ceaseless nibbling of various types of cookies and munching on mandarins which inevitably leads to sore throats and coughs! Lots of us will have to double up our exercise workouts to lose the extra baggage that is showing.
Gong Xi Fa Cai to all who celebrate Chinese New Year!!
No comments:
Post a Comment