CHINESE NEW YEAR...

Cant believe it...chinese new year has passed!!!its been so fast...seems like it was yesterday where i was collecting ang pow back home. But this year...couz i messed up my studies...no CNY for me...haih. Ah well...shit happens, would be my 3rd time missing chinese new year i think. My two years at high school and this year...Just think of how much ang pow money have i not collected...dammit!

Though it may seem that way, chinese new year aint all about ang pow money!!!Its more about the atmosphere, the togetherness of the family...a fun week where everyone forgets about their worries at work or even at home...just push that aside for a bit and celebrate together as a whole.

My family will always have a new years eve dinner at home...(dads side) then we will bumm around..chat about anything...or just watch TV or anything like that till midnite. At midnite...we will wish ourselfs happy new year...and go to sleep after that i guess. New years day is much more exciting. We will all have to wake up at 730 or 8 to rush for the toilets...get ready and go to church. When we come back from church..which would be around 9...My mums side of the family will come over...and mum will prepare noodles and such for breakkie...followed by coffee tea and cake sessions. After that mums side of the fam will leave either to other sides of the family or somewhat like that. Dads side of the fam will then com...and we will then have to do the whole procedure of praying to my ancestors.

Even though im 19 now i dont think i fully know the procedure of the prayers. I know all the ladies of the house will be in the kitchen preparing a feastful lunch. Dad and my uncle will just be sitting in the living room talking about either...politics...education or china as a whole. That only leaves me, my bro and one of my cousin to prepare the prayer stuff. Have to roll the paper gold thingi...prepare all the stuff to burn. After that, we will then have to do the 1st round of prayers...with lighting up 51 joystick(3 for each person and we have 17 ppl all in all), taking turns to prayer with the eldest male going 1st followed by the other males in order before the eldest female can go followed by the rest in order of age. After that, we have to fill the wine and tea cup a bit and wait for a bit...this steps will be repeated another 2 more times...then we just wait for a bit...quite a bit actually b4 we actually start burning all the stuff.

The burnin part is always quite kewl. We will have this 'tong' and we just start burning all the stuff. Oh...btw...this whole burning thing...let me try to explain. We are burning stuff like...paper money..paper clothes..paper shoes...paper mobile phones..anything that is made of paper. The story goes like...if we burn this stuff, it will be sent up to heaven for our ancestors.It will usually be me my bro and my cousin who will doing the work. The ladies will still be in the kitchen...dad will still be just standing quite a bit away just starin at the guys burning the stuff while he chats with my uncle about politics, education or china in general!!!hahaha!!! Burnin part can get quite hard..couz after a while we have to take a wooden stick to sorta check whether all the stuff we burn has actually burnt(couz it has to be completely burnt off b4 it will be sent up to heaven for our ancestors)...However, we cant poke anything we burn if their not burnt yet couz that would me we have damage the gifts and it will no longer be useable in heaven.

After all is burnt...we will have to pour the wine and tea in clockwise rotation over the 'tong'. After that, we head back into the house..where the food should be ready and we will all have a big feast.After that is just bummin around again till dinner where we have another big feast...haha...its all eating man CNY!!!

after the 1st day...there isnt much. Its more of going to visit other family and friends...to collect ang pow...or to gamble. Have never been good at gambling for some reason. Dont think i have had a winning CNY yet. yet to break the record this year. But have got off to a losing start ...not in cards gambling..but in bowling and pool gambling. So far lost 25 bucks already to 24 in pool and bowling. Damit...nevermind..will try to win back 10 bucks tonite!!!watch out 24.

But yeah...thats sorta how my CNY is usually spent. Nothing great really, as for this year...since im in IH...didnt do much of anything. We basicaly just went out for dinner on new years eve, went for dinner on new years day followed by watching the aussie open finals at fed square...and nothing much since.

But yeah..alls good...and thats all for me on my CNY post. Just got up 3 minutes before i began this post so forgive me for my nonsense..hahaha! Take care all and
HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!!!

ps. i sorta drafted this b4 new year...but didnt post it up...and now im doing so after new year...so it may seem a bit weird a read due to the whole past,present and future thingi...thus me askin for your forgiveness!!!nah man...as if i care whether you like what im writting o not!!!ITS MY BLOG!!!

Anyhows...some pics
NEW YEARS EVE




NEW YEARS DAY