Oh. Lunar Year Tradition

    Happy Lunar Year, everyone!
    Pictures of this post was taken when James and I went on vacation to Kaohsiung last week, it's sooooo late. >_<" On last post, I've promised to you that I'll introduce the new year tradition of our culture, here they are.
    Everything we do and prepare for new year has its significance.
    I. On the new year's eve, the first thing we do is cleaning up the house before the very first day of new year. It means all bad things we had or experienced were gone and had been the past for good. It's quite important for each family, because everyone always wish new year would start clean, and be better.
    II. The second is to worship. You might have known the worship tradition in Chinese, we always light incense sticks as you usually make your hands clasped or use the candles when you pray, and prepare food we cooked, fruits and something God likes (each God has its preference, if you were curious about their preferences, you may ask the hosts of each temple, they always know! ). We will do many times of it, due to the different Gods we believe in, such as the House-God and the Land-God who keep our house safe in the past year, and Gods who protect us from being harmed and illness and so on. And of course, we must worship our ancestors. We not only express the gratitude to our ancestors, but invite them to enjoy the meal we've prepared for them.
    III. Then is the "Reunion dinner", which is the most important thing that everyone looking forward to, especially children. You might have heard about the "red envelope" in Chinese. That is the only thing what children do care about on new year. The red envelope means lucky money! It's a blessing from the elder. The amount is different, and that's makes children excited (only children could get the red envelopes, at the time you have a job, the qualification of getting red envelope is terminated, and it's your turn to give red envelopes to children in the family.) The red envelopes are usually given after the reunion dinner. However, since our holiday starts right on the new year's eve (it means that everyone has to work 'till the last day before the new year holiday), families don't have enough time to prepare the reunion dinner by themselves, so many of them choose to go to restaurants for dinner. And as for my family, we chose to go to the Malaysia restaurant to enjoy the meal this time.
    IV. The most interesting thing many families (not every) must do on new year holiday is to play the "Mahjong". It's like a gambling as you usually play pokers. However, it's not really "gamble" for money (a real gambling is illegal in our country). On such special holiday, playing "Mahjong" becomes a way to make families get closer.
    Hope you would like my sharing. Wish you have a nice day.☺☺☺

Cecilia in Styling -tips: grey, black, neon pink coat