Preparing For The Chinese New Year
I’m already in the “Chinese New Year” mode since it’s just round the corner. Better start helping your family if you haven’t because the banks and everywhere is starting to be crowded with shoppers.
Below are what I’m busy with currently.
1. Spring Cleaning.
The room that I’ve spent more than 12 hours packing during my December holidays is now sparkling clean and dust free to the best-est of my abilities. Recently I’ve decided to maintain the “image” of my room so I regularly vacuum corners or dust my books.
2. Shopping for Chinese New Year accessories.
New clothes for the New Year.
It’s a practice to wear new clothes during the Chinese New Year and I haven’t bought any yet but I’ll try to as soon as I find the time. There’s also those Chinese New Year decorations that can be stick to the wall. Sometimes I make Hong Bao lanterns and stick them at the arc of the door way.
3. Shopping for Chinese New Year groceries.
The Chinese New Year always involves food. My family has a habit of stocking up on food to avoid price surges as the occasion nears. Watch out for sharp rise in the price of seafood products like prawns, sea cucumbers, and fishes. The wet market is also close on certain days so all the more to stock up so as to prevent starvation.
Other necessities include goodies that are served to the visitors like chocolates, soft drinks, sweets, and tidbits. The boxes of mandarin oranges will come later since there will be more sales as the Chinese New Year approaches.
4. Preparing for Chinese New Year Eve.
My family loves steamboat to the extent where we have steamboat every Chinese New Year Eve. Its buffet style so there’s lots of food and the fridge will be filled to the brim. We actually thought of eating out but nothing beats home cooked food.
5. Preparing hong baos.
My parents are already preparing hong baos so that they can give them out. My mum bought many packets of hong baos; cartoon and non-cartoon ones so that she can give them out accordingly. The younger kids usually get those cartoon or cuter hong baos while the older teens and youths will receive the plain looking ones.
Today my parents queued for hours just to change the big notes to multiple smaller ones at the local bank. It’s the weekdays, off peak hour and they had to queue for that long already so you can imagine the queue during peak hours.
Earlier I looked through my parent’s army of hong baos packets and I requested my mum to reserve the below for me. (:
I’ll be receiving this Hello Kitty hong bao (but with cash in it) from mummy this year.
How are your preparations for the Chinese New Year so far?
I don’t really care what the red packets since I only hold on to them for about 10 minutes before my old lady forcefully pries it off my hands ):
Pretty much everything done here, save for spring cleaning, though if you ever saw my house, it’d be an impossible task. Oh well.
Well, it’s my third year being away from my family for the New Year’s, and I guess it’s upsetting. My mother gave me a hong bao at Christmas to open with my other present, and my father gave me another hong bao right before I left around the “other” New Year’s. So I won’t be doing anything special now, I guess. :(
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Sad.
Though I don’t usually celebrate CNY to that extent, because my family doesn’t really hold to Chinese tradition that much… Hell we can’t even speak Chinese! xD But I do enjoy spending time with my family on CNY… Too bad last time Indonesia did not make CNY as public holiday, so it’s just another normal day there and so we can’t really do anything much…
Now they make CNY as a public holiday but the bad news is, I’m stuck here in Singapore alone… ;_; So no celebration whatsoever on CNY and probably I’m not going to do anything anyway and the very sad news is I don’t get any hong bao….
SADDDDD… ;_;
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1. WTF is spring cleaning…I must have nothing to clean up in my room. Spartan room is mine. Maybe a little wiping here and there closer to the Eve.
2. Yeah I happened to finish this by printing custom shirts instead. -_- Why are there no more zip-collar polo tees anymore?
3. Not buying food, we hardly have anyone coming over.
4 & 5 are out of my jurisdiction. We always have steamboat too but at my grandma’s place.
Largely though I find each CNY to be less and less anticipatory than the last. Must be the age and the fact that I have yet to achieve anything significant. Argh.
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Wow you guys are pretty traditional. On my part of the world not even doing anything significant for CNY… sure it’s a family holiday, but where I live.. it doesn’t mean anything other than an intermediate family get together… which is only like three people.
I guess a tradition my mom has, which my sister followed is to go out and see the various lion dances that is around Chinatown…
CNY was significant to me when I was a lot younger, because I was more impressionable… but as the economic crunch time occurs.. I guess the single hong bao I get from my mom.. is now only seen as symbolic for luck… as my mom is grabbing onto me to provide more than what she gives.. >_<
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@Shin
Aiyoh Shin, later you hurt her feelings than you know. Don’t say until like that.
Maybe you can immediately keep the hong baos in your pockets and proclaim them to be yours?
@Kiri
Oh at least you’ve received a hong bao beforehand, cheer up! Sometimes, just chatting with loved ones over the phone is already a experience. There was once when I stood at a public phone booth with a warm cup of tea (slowly turning cold) in the middle of winter just to hear my family voices. It’s a joyous thing to do.
@Kazearashi
Cheer up! Perhaps you can do some visiting and visit your friends house? Or perhaps window shopping at Orchard Road or Chinatown for sight seeing experience?
@Panther
You’re right, I seldom see custom made zip polo tee around anymore. It also costs more to get a custom one right? (Since you’re specifying a polo tee as the material). By chance, will we get to see the custom made polo tee on your blog soon?
@animemiz
Neh that’s not traditional, I’m just getting into the mood. I partake in almost all the festivals in Singapore because I plan to enjoy life while young. I’ve seen the live lion dance performance before and it was so noisy and lengthy that I left mid-way; it’s more comfortable to catch the performance on tv instead.
I feel that as long as you’re with your family and having a great time, CNY is already a well spent one. (:
Nah Hyn, I will probably be using an older polo tee and it was not for CNY anyway, already prepared a normal T for CNY, considered new since it is custom.
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The cleaned up room usually doesnt stay clean very long in my case.Its a very depressing thing to see how the hours of work you put into the cleaning get reversed by a mere 20 minutes of cooking and changing clothes ^_^
So your mother still think of you as a younger child in her heart considering the HelloKitty card^^
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祝你学习进步。
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@Panther
Speaking of new clothes, I really need to get some soon.
@Blowfish
I have a soft spot for Hello Kitty despite my age.
@Choux
谢谢。你也学业进步喔！
饶了我吧，祝我学习进步的人太多了。
Getting to the age when I’m handing out far more hong bao’s than receiving. Everything’s all prepared, just have to send them out to those distant relatives.
Unfortunately, Chinese New Year Eve falls upon the day I’m moving back to the dorms so little time for celebration. Needless to say, family will be eating out that day :s
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@Choux
那么，祝你红包拿多多。这总行了吧！
@FFVIIKnight
(Ok, I’m kidding with regards to the hong bao).
You’re handing out hong baos? Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh…Happy New Year FFVIIKnight! Do I get a hong bao too?
Eating out can be less troublesome too. You need not spend time preparing food or washing up. What’s important is that the family gets to spend time together!