Happy Chinese New Year

February 3rd marked the beginning of the celebration of Chinese New Year in Malaysia and in the rest of the Chinese-influenced world. Yesterday and today are public holidays, so the CNY celebration continues. Chinese New Years represents the third of the major holidays celebrated in Malaysia (Hari Raya, Deepavalli, and CNY). There are a lot of traditions associated with CNY and if you want to know about these you can check out the links below. I will try to tell you about a few of the traditions that I have seen.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_New_Year

http://allmalaysia.info/msiaknow/festivals/cny.asp

Reunion Dinner

The Reunion Dinner takes place on Chinese New Year's Eve here in Malaysia. Chinese-Malaysians head back to their homes and eat a big dinner with their families. There are certain foods that the Chinese associate with "propserity" and "good fortune" because these foods sound like the Chinese words for fortune and good luck. I can't think of any good English words that sound like "chiken fried steak" or "barbeque brisket", so I guess that we will have to continue to eat good Texas food for its nutritional and health value.

Because many people have to travel out of town to get back to their families, some people take off from work on CNY eve day. You could see things staring to close down throughout the day. By the end of the day the only people in the Mall seemed to be Malays (and a few Chinese rushing out of the grocery store headed home with stacks of goodies for their dinner). I was glad that I was able to find a Thai food place to feed me dinner.

Signs like this have been popping up all over town.



Mandarin Oranges

Mandarin oranges are considered to be sybols of abundance and good fortune (Did you know that China produces 10 times more mandarin oranges than any other country?). People use potted mandarind orange bushes for decorations and give away mandarin oranges (a great and tasty tradition).

I can see a new career in "food photography". This orange was put to good use soon after I took this photo.


Mandarin orange bush.


Mandarin orange bush decoration.


Ang Pow

One CNY tradition is to give out money in little red envelopes known as Ang Pow. The tradition is that married people are supposed to pass out ang pow to unmarried people. Over the past week there has been a lot of concern discussed in the newspapers that people have not been able to find enough new bills to fill their ang pow (I am not choosy, I will accept used bills).






Sadly, in spite of my unmarried status I have not yet received a single ang pow. I guess that I didn't hang my CNY stocking in the right place.

Interesting Aside- The ang pow tradition has spread to other cultures in Malaysia. During Hari Rya the Malays pass out gifts in "green envelopes.

http://www.penang-vacations.com/ang-pow.html

The CNY celebrations will continue for a while, so I will have a lot more posts about this holiday.