Posted under Life & My Thoughts
Time flies by and it’s just difficult to comprehend at times. It was just like yesterday that I waited for the struck of midnight, thus receiving my very first ang pow from my parents and my brother. The wheel of time just seems to be turning faster than what I can make of it. Tomorrow will be the seventh day of the Chinese New Year, where we call it “Yan Yat” or “Ren Re” which to my understanding is everyone’s day or everyone’s birthday.
On this day, normally the chinese community would go out for a session of “Yee Sang”. This is a dish where assorted vegetable are sliced to tiny shreds and then accompanied by raw fish or other sort of stuff which I am not really familiar with. Then everyone will just stick their chopsticks in and mix the ingredients together in an upward style. It’s said that the higher you raise the Yee Sang, the better your luck and wealth will be. That is as has been said throughout the years.
However this tradition seems to be a bit awkward when we do it in countries like Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore etc, but it does not seem to be practiced in Mainland China where the bulk of the Chinese community are. May be they do, but it’s not really known to others.
Sometimes it just makes me wonder, things that we do during special occasions, festive seasons, etc are they really a tradition or may be it’s just a gimmick. Every time when it comes to special occasions, restaurants becomes packed and stuffs become so much more expensive than normal. imagine having to pay about 15 bucks for a rose during Valentines Day where it costs like 1 to 2 bucks during normal days.
I guess the publicity and the advertising has build perspective that such occasions has to be celebrated in a certain way. I am not against the society if they want to celebrate occasions with flowers or diamonds or whatsoever they please even if they need to pay the price of a jet plane, but isn’t it worth a thought, a rethink.
I do spend during such occasions as well, but when I relook back, doesn’t the thought counts? If you spend a lot on a certain occasion, but it’s just for others to admire, then I believe it’s not the proper thing to do. If you really want to surprise someone, or you want to give them something special, give it to them whole heartedly. I believe the amount spent does not equal the amount of joy received and given.
If you only look at the value of the things you received, you will never know the price of joy and happiness.
If you value the effort and thought of the received goods, then you will appreciate the person.
Kyels on 08 Feb 2006 at 20:28:52 145 #
People often take the opportunity to raise the price of every single thing that they are selling during festive season because we have no choice but to buy it especially food. There is no such thing as we have to go on with our daily lives during the festive season without food … Hence that is the reason why they raise their prices up and yet we still have to buy it.
Yee Sang … It may be a gimmick it may not. I don’t know the true story behind it either … But what I agree with you is it’s the thought that counts … Like for example receiving Ang Pows from our parents and grandparents. It means to give us good luck for the year ahead. Like blessings.
But if you look closely at the world today, no one take the meaning behind the giving of Ang Pows seriously anymore especially kids. All they want is the money contained in it … Like they may get an Ang Pow but will feel disappointed if the amount is not big enough … Well, I guess the tradition is dripping off from the younger generations … What can we do? Educate them? It’s not easy unless we educate them from young … After all charity starts from home …
How was your CNY? I hope you had fun.
zeroimpact on 13 Feb 2006 at 12:47:14 824 #
I guess we should stick with gud ol 2 minute maggi during such time.
I guess that when they feel disappointed when they open the packet back home, they can still be taught, the worst would be them opening it after receiving it right in front of the person giving it.
I think there is a lot we need to do to educate the young, be it the soft or the hard way
My CNY was great dear, thanks. How’s yours? Hope you had a great time too!