Saturday 7 February 2009

Still celebrating CNY

Chinese New Year is celebrated for 15 days and we've two more days to go before we wrap up the festivity. When I visited best friend yesterday, there were decorations hanging around the house.

Little chinese lanterns in the garden.

Even the plants are dressed up in auspicious colours.

The dogs were napping in the afternoon.

This morning, we were greeted by the thunderous sounds of drums, cymbals and dancing lions at our development. The traditional Chinese Lion dance is a part of Chinese New Year festivities. If done correctly, they bring happiness and luck and scare evil away.

In the afternoon, we were treated to a delicious lunch at my brother's house. Here are some photos of the kids having a good time.



Of course we did the auspicious 'yu sheng' toss to raise good luck for the year. Yu sheng usually consists of strips of raw salmon, mixed with shredded vegetables and a variety of sauces and condiments and a host of other ingredients.

In a celebration known as "lo hei", we gathered around and tossed the shredded ingredients into the air with chopsticks while saying auspicious wishes out loud to mark the start of a prosperous new year. It's customary that the higher you toss, the greater your fortunes! As expected, we ended up with a very messy tray.

The Chinese New Year celebrations will come to an end on this Monday, the 15th day of the new calendar which also coincides with the first full moon. Known as Yuan Xiao Festival, it's a joyous day because it is when we celebrate Chinese Valentine's Day. Don't you think it's a lovely way to wrap up the festivities?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Yep....but we want YOUR food posts... not other people's... LOL

J@n!ce said...

I just had my first "Lo Hei" yesterday at my MIL house. I was surprised that Amos actually love it, Zac didn't like the taste !! :)

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