To all readers who are celebrating the Lunar New Year,
CHINESE
NEW YEAR!

May the new year bring you prosperity and good health and an abundance of God's choicest blessings!

For those of you who do not know, the Chinese Lunar New Year celebration, which is also known as the Spring Festival, lasts for fifteen days and is the most important of all the Chinese festivals.

One of the most important aspects of this festival is the reunion dinner on the eve of the new year. All the members of the family, regardless of whether they are overseas or in the neighbouring towns, will make the long trek to the eldest member's usually the parents, grandparents or great-grandparents home for the reunion dinner. But, due to the affluence of Chinese society, the reunion dinner is frequently held in restaurants and hotels these days.



Some families may invite a Lion dance troupe as a symbolic ritual to usher in the Lunar New Year as well as to evict bad spirits from the premises. These troupes come with drums and cymbals and will let off fire crackers which the Chinese believe will frighten away the evil spirits.
I have fond memories of those joyful days when I was a kid. The extended family, including my grandparents, a huge numbers of aunts and uncles and cousins thrice removed would gather at a great grand aunt's place for the reunion dinner. The table would then be cleared and out would come the cards. Black jack and poker would continue into the wee hours of the morning. Before fireworks were banned, we kids would go into the field and let off loads of firecrackers and play with sparklers.

The gambling would then continue and I would renew my friendships with my cousins. it was so easy making friends when you're a kid. You could see each other only for a day and a year later, you can still pick up where you left off and go bounding off together looking for mischief. =) Those were fun times. When the gambling finally ends, I would get all the spare coins. That was fun!
My grandfather died many years back and the family began to move away and some have migrated overseas. For us the reunion dinner has ceased as there's just no one left.

13 comments:
Year of the Tiger la...
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Miss your posts. When are you coming back? God bless +JMJ+ amr
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Hi,
My name is Rev Robert Wright, Editor for Christian.com, a social network made specifically for Christians, by Christians. We embarked on this endeavor to offer the entire Christian community an outlet to join together and better spread the good word of Christianity. Christian.com has many great features like Christian TV, prayer requests, finding a church, receiving church updates and advice. We have emailed you to collaborate with you and your blog to help spread the good word of Christianity. I look forward to your response regarding this matter. Thanks!
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生存乃是不斷地在內心與靈魂交戰;寫作是坐著審判自己。..................................................
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看到大家都留言-我也忍不住說聲---加油..................................................
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