CNY: Evolving Through The Years

Today is the third day of Chinese New Year and I had just arrived home from my granddad's place in Kedah. Coming to think of it, while people say Chinese New Year is the festival where people go home, to us younger generations, it's always been leaving home to go to our parents' hometown.

Like I've mentioned in my previous post, Chinese New Year this time is a pretty different one for me. This time while I was in my parents' hometown, I thought about how the festival had changed through the years.

While sitting around the table chit-chatting with two of my closest cousins, I said, "Years ago, we were a bunch of small kids running around the garden making a lot of noise. Now, we're a group of teenagers sitting around the table talking about life." Guess I'm getting older or something. I've never thought of this before. Or is it because, like I said, this year I'm really free to actually feel it?

The second night of CNY has always been the most boisterous day of the season in our family. It's the night when we prepare lots of food for a party dinner and everyone in the huge family will come home to enjoy the buffet and spend time together. This year, it was rather quiet. Very few of them came back and the ones who came left very early.

Those of us who had enjoyed our meal sat around the garden staring into the air. A distant relative (granddad's sister's granddaughter) then decided that we play a game together. Thinking of the games we used to play, she answered our what-shall-we-play question saying, "Hide-and-seek!"

Instantly, the four of us (me, my brother and two of our closest cousins) looked around the house compound and said, "We're too big to hide anywhere now." Granddad lives in a semi-D and hide-and-seek was our favourite game of all time as a kid. Now not only our age is a problem, our sizes wouldn't let us enjoy such games as much anymore.

This year, we thought a lot about our younger days. My 17-year-old brother, a female cousin the same age, and her 14-year-old sister. The four of us who grew up together were the ones who felt it most intensely I believe.

We tried talking to some other cousins our age and who played games during Chinese New Year when we were younger. Sad to say we failed to bring up a full conversation with them. They, or we, have grown to be quieter and shyer. No wonder they say kids blend in very quickly, we can't seem to do it now.

I was told that in China, they can't imagine wearing short-sleeves during CNYs.
Of course, it's winter during CNYs in China.

According to the Chinese culture, males return home for a reunion dinner on Chinese New Year's Eve, while females go back to their mother's home on the second day of Chinese New Year. My cousin said that a few years from now, my brother will be the only one among us four to join the reunion dinner, while the three of us will only be home on the second day of CNY when my brother goes off to his wife's home.

I honestly can't imagine that at all. I also doubt that it'll be happening to me, or anyone of us four, any few years from now. If it does happen, I guess Chinese New Years will be losing its already-pale-taste more severly than now. It's saddening to think of it. :(

Anyway, Happy Chinese New Year everyone!

Photo Credit.