CNY eve and all the fun

I think most of us will be on leave and ready for Chinese New Year (CNY). Almost half of the KL people are from other states. They will actually travel back to their hometown to join their relatives for dinner on CNY eve which called “Twin Lian Fund” or reunion dinner. Normally this meant their grandparents or parents home. This is the period we called the “Balik Kampung” period in Malaysia. The fortunate one will travel back on their own car and the unfortunate one will travel by public transport. As this exodus takes place Kuala Lumpur (KL) will be quite deserted. Actually not only the Chinese who celebrates CNY that goes back to the hometown but the other races also take this opportunity to goes back. They take this chance to meet up with their hometown Chinese friends.

Actually what interests me, are the changes in how we celebrate CNY eve. In my days I will travel to my grandparent’s home back in Kajang which is not far away from KL. Over there we will have our “Twin Lian Fund” or reunion dinner. Normally all the uncles and aunties will be back for the dinner. The aunties will be the “chef” that is going to cook the dishes as usual there is a lot of dishes that is connected with prosperity like the “Fatt Choy” which is suppose to bring wealth to those who ate it. My grandfather is a former teacher and he is very strict so we will behave politely, hahaha. We will always call the elders first before we start to eat; of course the first person to call is the grandparents.

After dinner, all the adults will start to prepare for mahjung, when I was younger I will have no choice as I could not drive yet and there is no excuse for me to leave early, hence normally I will stay back and watch the CNY eve programs on the TV, which at that time has only 2 channels, hahaha. So normally after the mahjung session, my family will goes for midnight movies together. When I reach my teens, well that where the great things happen, my mum will drive me back to the house first. I will then get ready for my own midnight movies with the gang. In the old days I have group of “Sei Thong”, we are a group of 4.

I will choose the best looking new clothes, the pant of course is tailor made in Sungai Wang or my friend’s father tailor shop. The shirt is the most “Wei” of the CNY clothes. I will normally take a longer time to bath. As tonight is the night to parade the new clothes to outsider or in other words the girls, hahaha. We normally go for midnight movies also; the place is Sungai Wang cinema. As the eldest said all things should be new, so normally from head to toe including the underwear will be brand new. The only things old will be only the watch, hahaha.

Normally we have booked the movies a week ahead as I think it’s a tradition to a lot of teens to see movies on CNY eve. And normally the blockbuster will show on this day, of course it will normally be a Jackie Chan, Sam Hui or Raymond Wong movies. As we live quite near to Sungai Wang we will normally walk there. When we reach there you could see Cinderella, sleeping beauty, farah fawcet, fennie Yuen, Charine Chan, May Lo (now is Jackie Cheung Wife) already parading around the area of the cinema. Of course we the james dean, Leslie Cheung, Danny Chan and alan tam will be also parading our new clothes. I am not sure why we get a kick out of this, maybe this is the time whereby all the “flowers” gather. Of course there are those “flowers” that has already some “Cow Dung” standing beside them but majority of them is still “single” and “fresh”, hahaha. There is only 2 opportunity to parade ourselves that is before and after the show. Those are the days.

After the show we will normally walks back to our house and in my case my mother has already cooked supper for us as she will normally cooked and prepare dish to invite the god of fortune into the house. All the family members will normally stay awake until midnight to eat. Umm outside you could already hear the fireworks firing non-stops since 6 pm. Now with the electronic and the dog eat dog age, things has changed, I am not sure how is the teens celebrate CNY eve now, I am not sure if its the same, it could be they will stayed home and watch DVD or are in some badly lit shoplot playing video games or surfing the net and ICQ/messenging or sms with friends in other states, even now the fireworks is only sporadic as the government has actually banned it. I guess even the reunion dinner could be at some restaurants as the mums or aunties wanted to rest as they are no longer the housewifes as the old days, they are the working class.

My colleague post shows the hectic time on CNY, its tiring but its fun, http://leecheensiong.blogspot.com