Happy Chinese New Year!

It is nothing new to say that Chinese New Year seems to be so much more different now than when we were 10 years old. When we were 10 years old, CNY is THE time, in fact THE BEST time. It is when we go out with parents to get brand new clothes, get lots ang paus from relatives, having to wait while our parents chit chat with their friends during visits while finishing all their choc cookies. As for me, i remembered memorizing some Teochew "gong xi fa cai" so i can re-chant it to my grandpa. It was very very joyous.

Of course, it is still a very joyous festival. We still buy brand new clothes, we still get ang paus, we still do relative visits..but despite the all-too-convincing "still"s I cant help but realized something changed. We still love CNY of course, but we cant deny a big factor of that affection is because we get 1 whole week of holidays for it. We are excited in some way for it, but we no longer have that adrenaline pumping, heart beating super fast moment when we hear the fireworks.

Perhaps we grow up or perhaps we grow out of the CNY cliche...either ways are sad..

I hope it is not too weird coming from my mouth, CNY is still a great and huge tradition we Chinese should always remember and live up to. If ever you're like me, even for one second doubt the meaning of CNY, maybe it will do us good to perhaps drop by at Chinatown to see with our own eyes, how this thousand years old tradition managed to so effortlessly give us all reason to be happy.

And if that wasnt enough, you can still count on the scrumptious yee-sang, beer/wine drinking with your friends, and jin rummy/mahjong to cheer you up!

See really...there is no reason why we shouldn't enjoy ourselves!

Happy Chinese New Year!