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Welcome to Wah You Lee's Writing Page 3! |
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University Settlement's Writing Class of ESL Program at 175 Eldridge Street, New York, NY 10002 (212) 533-6306 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The Chinese New Year of My Childhood (Part I) By Wah You Lee Contents |
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Links Pictures Chinese Flyer English Flyer Spanish Flyer Contents of ESL Yu Zhen Chan David Chen Ofelio Chen Lisa Lee Marisa Leung Winnie Leung Wen Fei Liang Pak Ping Ng Elena Tang Sau Mei To Man Ying Wong Pauline Yau Muhammed Gunsel Yildirim Faraguna |
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I remember clearly how my family celebrated the Chinese New Year in my childhood. My family was a big family. There were my grandparents, my parents, my uncles (my father's younger brother), his wife and their children, my two brothers, two maids, and I. All of us lived together. I also had three aunts. They got married and had many children. They lived in the same city as we did, and their houses were not so far from ours. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Before the New Year, there was a lot of preparation that we had to. We had to clean the house from the ceiling to the floor. We had to buy some substances for praying. We had to buy some foodstuffs for several plentiful meals. We had to buy or make clothes and shoes. All members of my family were busy, especially my mother, who was extremely busy. She was the housekeeper (though she did not work with her hands). She had to arrange everything for the New Year. We, the children, gave a hand to do some things sometimes, but caused more trouble than we helped. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
buy or make clothes and shoes. All members of my family were busy, especially my mother, who was extremely busy. She was the housekeeper (though she did not work with her hands). She had to arrange everything for the New Year. We, the children, gave a hand to do some things sometimes, but caused more trouble than we helped. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
I like to talk about the New Year's cakes because they deeply impressed me. There were many kinds of New Year's cakes. They were made in different sizes and made of different ingredients. They had to be made in large quantities because these cakes were not only for us, but also presents for our relatives and friends. Those cakes had to be kept for one month, so they needed to be made in a special way. My mother had the experience in making these cakes, so she was the leader and directed us to help her when making cakes. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
On the eve of the New Year, we had a good dinner called a "reunion dinner", and all members of the family ate together. Sometimes, we would invite the relatives or friends who lived alone to eat with us. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Just past 12 A.M., the first day of the New Year came, and we were praying. The members of the whole family fell on their knees to pray to our ancestors. Then, my father led us to bow to our grandparents. Then, the children bowed to their parents, and the maids bowed to their master and mistresses. At that time, the people who bowed could get the “lucky money� (the money wrapped with red paper) from the old generation. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The adults, even if they hadn't married and were ninety years old, could get the lucky money. Usually, the blessing speech between people was "gong xi fa cai", which means, wishing you get big money. But among the relatives, the young people would say, "shen zhuang li jian" (good health) to the old people, and the adults would say, "kuai gao zhang da" (grow up quickly) to the children. When the praying finished, it was three o'clock and everyone went to sleep. The parents would put lucky money under the children's pillows again. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The Chinese New Year of My Childhood (Part II) By Wah You Lee Contents |
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On the first day of New Year, the children wore new clothes, socks, and shoes. In my family, all the children put on the same style, same color, and one size bigger clothes (because children’s figures get bigger day by day), as if wearing uniforms. After breakfast, my father and my uncle led all the children to visit my grandma’s mother. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
On this whole day, we ate vegetarian meals, and even without meat, they were very delicious. We could not wash clothes, could not sweep the floor this day. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The second day was called “the opening of New Year.” It meant the new year started to be celebrated in public. Relatives and friends visited each other with their homemade new year’s cakes. My aunts, their husbands and their children all come to my house. We were overjoyed at meeting, and had a big dinner too. The seventh day was called “the birthday for everyone.” My family would invite relatives and some close friends to join our dinner party. People would play games or chat in loud voices, and surely, some would gossip. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
In these days, we had to pray to our ancestors before the big meals, and avoided saying anything about “death.” | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
During New Year, some ancient costume opera troupes would perform in our town. Some troupes charged for tickets, and some were free of charge, because its performance was for praying to the gods. These performances continued for three to five days and from 1 PM to the next morning at 6. A lot of people came from the countryside to watch this. The New Year main activities were visiting relatives and friends, watching show, playing games and eating. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The fifiteenth day was the end of the NNew Year, so there was big celebration in the town. Many people came from the countryside and some young people made use of this opportunity to look for lovers, so it was called "the Chinese Valentine's Day." In the daytime there was a great parade. In this parade there were many groups--lion groups, dragon groups, phoenix groups, eagle groups. Many business companies, stores, and rich people would set up a big table at the front door, and there were a lot of foods of different kinds on the tables. When the parade passed by, the groups would stop and perform, and the table's owner would pay money to support the groups. At night many flower markets were on the streets, which were decorated with floweres and colorful lanterns. everywhere was crowded with people doing what was called "walking in the flower markets and looking at the colorful lanterns." | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
This fashion of Chinese New Year has been gone for more than 60 years, but it is still impressed deeply on my mind. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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