red and orange

HAPPY CHINESE NEW YEAR!

I just sat down to write this and a series of firecrackers is going off at the house next door. Very. Continuous. Cracking. and Popping. That's pretty cool though. This was my first time celebrating Chinese New Year and it has been so much fun that I am trying to understand why it was the first time!!! I mean, besides the obvious (I'm not chinese). It was basically nonexistent in my pre-Asia life. January 23, 2012.. year of the Dragon! I spent my weekend and Chinese New Year holiday going to open houses, learning customs, relaxing, and meeting all the members of one family. Because I stayed with a Chinese family, I gained some stories and traditions that are almost too numerous to explain here, but I will try, if I can remember.

First of all, we went to these "open houses" but not just any old open house. Residences decide which day and which meal of the 14 days of the Chinese New Year to host their open house. The first dinner is almost always at the eldest brother's house. Families typically follow the father/husband's lineage to determine where to go for the big dinners. For instance, we didn't see a recently married sister because she was at her husband's family's house. I was only 'really' involved in the first two days of the new year but we went to at least 5 houses (one of them twice, and one was the place I stayed for the duration). Breakfast was porridge on both days, something light to save room for a big lunch and/or dinner. Lunches was more likely a stop in, greet the host, find some food, meet everybody, pass out angpow, and head home. Dinners were less like an open house because they had more of a 'start' time rather than a window of coming and going as one pleases.

here are some other various traditions I witnessed :)

1. receiving/giving oranges. so many oranges. different sizes, amounts, types and for many days!

2. receiving angpow. These are the red envelopes with cash in them. Married women (more typically women...) hand these out to every unmarried young person when they come to a house or when unmarried young people come to their house. These envelopes are beautiful and you can find them anywhere, but mostly banks give them out this time of year. They are (nearly) all different. I'm told it's rude not to accept the angpow. I observed really hard to figure out how to receive angpow. Modest smile, kind words (ie: "happy new year! thank you!"), don't open it, and keep it with you until you can put it in a safe place. I went to a lot of houses and met a lot of married women so you can figure I did well on the angpow front too ;)

3. bathing in pomelo leaf water. My host-mom, Kerry, boiled pomelo leaves in water and saved the water for us to bathe with. The smell was terrific. This was to be done on New Year's eve to wash off the old!

4. wearing new clothes! everyone I met was wearing their newest clothes because, well, that's tradition. For 14 days, everything worn was supposedly new! This was fun to see because it was like shopping by staring at these gorgeous models and their new stuff they were rockin'. Start off the new year with new clothes, hmm.

5. leaving a light on for the god of good fortune to stop by. If a light is still on, then the god will know you're home and will shower you with good stuff!

6. this special cake we ate in the morning had a funny story. It was very gelatinous and sticky cake that was (but isn't always) fried with egg. I wouldn't describe it as cake, although that's what others called it, but more like sticky and thick jell-o that didn't have flavor. It may have just two ingredients; gelatin and brown sugar. But this stuff, this stuff was to make it so that we (people on earth) can't send messages to the gods about each other's behavior over the past year. The messages can't be sent if our teeth are practically glued together! hehee.

7. lion dances! I saw many lion dances and heard only a little bit of the story on that tradition. the myth is that lionlike beasts would terrorize the villages (many years ago) and so they left out fruit, banged on drums, and lit firecrackers off to scare them away. The beasts would eat them (I guess) if they successfully entered the village and houses. So these lion dances! they are awesome! two people usually inside the lion costume doing acrobatic and cute things, all to the beat! We had a performance here at school and it was rather frightening for some of the children, reasonably so. These lions are supposed to represent the mythological characters, so they jump at people, snap at them, try to scare them on purpose! It's entertaining nonetheless.

8. shower one another with blessings and good tidings and love and hospitality. Start the year off with happiness and smiles shared with each other. kindness and gratitude, etc.

I am so glad I could experience this holiday and in this way and in this beautiful place. The "chinese" traditions and people I surrounded myself with opened my eyes to the "other" side of Malaysian culture. Look at me, getting all cultured and stuff :) Thanks for your prayers!!

Lion dance! Very popular!

prettyyyyyyyyyyyyy!