Wednesday, February 09, 2005

Happy Chinese New Year

I already have my greeting card to give to Mum, who will no doubt have a red packet full of cash to give me in return (I'm sure one reason why Chinese parents are keen to marry off their offspring is to avoid having to give them lucky money indefinitely). It's surely a sign of the times when you can buy Chinese New Year greeting cards at the local bookshop, eh? I mean - this city doesn't even have a Chinatown.

It's really quite a low-key festival (that is, as celebrated by Chinese as opposed to those white folks' "celebrating diverse cultures" tourist traps) compared to Hong Kong. You're supposed to have a ton of food lying around for all the visitors you're going to get, and you're also supposed to spend as much time as possible visiting other families and eating their food. In my family it's limited to having a bit of dinner (which has been postponed till Friday) and giving out lucky money. Nothing too stressful...

...which apparently it is in China. Some poor people had to do their own cleaning for a whole day because their maid took the day off.

4 comments:

Frally said...

Tsk. The nerve of those maids.

And Happy Chinese New Year to you too.

Amanda said...

Oh the suffering...those poor people making do without their maids for an entire day...good help is so hard to find nowadays

Jon said...

Apparently you aren't supposed to wash your hair or use scissors today. I hope you'll at least eat mooncakes!

Violet said...

On the other hand, the idea of hiring someone to do my housework is really quite appealing.

Jon: I disregard any superstition which stops me from washing my hair every morning.