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millwaterasiancorner
Chinese NewYear
Year’s Day, I put one style in my left pocket, one in right and maybe one in my bag, and so on – and then practice in my mind. For example: left is $10 (around NZ$2), right is $20 (around NZ$5), etc. However, the first year passing out the red packets was too overwhelming, as I always confused myself and ended up saying to my husband “Oh no, did I just give out a pair of $10 instead of $100?”. It could be really embarrassing to give out the wrong red packets, as it could be a real disaster! In the photo are the traditional (small) and modern (long) red packet envelopes. This year’s Chinese New Year is on February 8th, and we are entering into the year of the Monkey! If you happen to see your Chinese neighbour, you can greet them with “Xin Nian Kuai Le” (Happy New Year), which may give them a big surprise!
Chinese New Year, in terms of people’s behaviour, is very similar to Christmas in New Zealand; where parents have to work around the clock to get things done; kids are looking forward to receiving red packet money and business will be closed for weeks. It’s a festival time for getting the family together and celebrating the happiness of receiving a brand new year. Some people believe it’s the time when bad luck will go away and to wish something good will happen. That explains why, in the Chinese New Year time, people must greet others by wishing them “earn fortunes”, “good health”, “good business” – or, in a modern way, “may you look like 28 years old every year!” The way people celebrate Chinese New Year will vary from family to family and the list would be endless if I go into details. Instead, I would like to share some funny experiences with you from when I was living in Hong Kong. When I was a kid, on New Year’s Eve we had to walk around the park and yelling out “lazy bugs on sale! Who want lazy bugs...?” This is a tradition, hoping to get rid of the laziness in kids and hoping they will work harder in the next year. (Obviously, it wouldn’t work!) My brother and I, of course, were just doing it for fun; laughing was more important than anything. That night, we also have a pair of small tangerines (with leaves and stem) and a pair of red packets to put beside our pillow. The first Chinese New Year after we married was a totally different story. We were “qualified” to hand out red packets, which means we needed to prepare enough notes for passing out packets. The rule is you should hand out a pair of red packets to whoever is younger (unmarried) than you and whom you meet in the first 15 days in Chinese New Year – so there is quite an amount of notes we needed to have prepared. The fact is, the amount of packet money given out to a close relative is certainly different to someone’s kid you just met. Unlike Christmas gifts, it is unusual to write a name on the packet. My solution was to prepare a few different styles of red packets, where each style only contains one value of note. On New
Nita Wong Originally from Hong Kong, 20+ years ago Millwater resident
2016
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