A Family Affair

So dis the season. it's Chinese New Year again!

Red is great! It's like everything is in red. Loud music are played and repeated till it gets in your head! I love the surroundings. Happy, loud, bright, red.

So the day before Chinese New Year is the reunion dinner. Generally everyone has to wait for everyone to be there before commencing but now in the modern days where everyone is working so far away or staying so far away, the dinner table is not always full. It is great to see all my family back again and happy and all grown up. I get to see them only once a year. I haven't seen my brother for 2 years. Although I was living somewhere near him but I could not visit him due to some terrorist attack on the airport. My flight was canceled. Sad.

As usual I had the lion dance at my place. My dad said he is doing this cos he is the eldest in Penang, where I come from. So he wants to do this for the family. All those loud noises and drums and noise making instruments are played.

1st day started off with parents giving their children red packets, ang pow(in Hokkien) Hong pow(in Cantonese) and Hong bao(in Mandarin). Then it's time to go visit the relatives and have lunch and exchange red packets. Only children need not to give red packets and normally only family members give red packets to each other. Non-family members, only the children get it.

So I'll be going back to Singapore this Saturday night. I would miss Chinese new year alright. I hope next year would be better. Hopefully everything improves.

Ich hoffe mein Vater ist viel viel gesunder naechtest Jahr. Oh liebe bitte Gott!

Ed