The 'Niu' Year, Day Fifteen - Chap Goh Meh

Chap Goh Meh marks the end of CNY or referred to Yuan Xiao Jie in Mandarin.

The festival ended on Monday night with most Chinese go with auspicious ceremonies of Chinese God Worship Rites at temples with a myriad of fascinating rituals and activities and throwing mandarin oranges into river/sea for good luck and Chinese 'Valentine's Day'...

Chap Goh Meh also marks the first full moon of the Lunar New Year. The sky was clear last night and not as was told, the 15th day's pour followed by recur floods. I spent a little while with a niece and two nephews witnessing the release of fireworks to mark the last day of CNY last night under a clear sky where the moon shined upon us.

Grew up in where church was the center of all social activities, I never stepped into a temple before thus I don't know much about temple's myriad of fascinating rituals and activities except had read and seen online as was told by other bloggers. I was driving down town yesterday and saw a big paper boat being transported to a location for boat burning ritual.

I wanted to witness at least once on how the ritual of boat burning was being held in Sibu but couldn't trace their location.

Anyway, our Chap Goh Meh's dinner was simple with much plentiful to appreciate for. We started the Lunar New Year with 'Mee Sua' (longevity noodles in chicken soup) and we also closed with 'Mee Sua' beside other sumptuous dishes.

Lanterns play as much important role in olden days CNY according to it legendary. Lantern has its own story and meaning with symbolism. In modern days, they are for CNY decoration.

Fireworks mark the last day of CNY.

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Chap Goh Meh

The romancing night of Chap Goh Meh...
Today is the Chinese 'Valentine's Day' also known as Chap Goh Meh the 15th and final day of Lunar New Year where throwing of oranges into the sea or river by young maidens, in belief that they would find themselves GOOD CARING husbands :)

Catch mine oranges, my love!

According to legend, the Chinese Valentine's Day was the only day in the year where young maidens could stroll along the streets, usually accompanied by a chaperon in the olden days.

Knowing the fact that many young men would be hanging around to catch their glimpses, these lovely maidens believed that there were legendary matchmakers who came down from the moon to help tie red strings of destiny on their legs with their right ones and in most cases the couples would END UP BEING TOGETHER! So lomantic!

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The 'Niu' Year, Day Eight

I'm at the moment obsess with the Niu Year posts! I thought I would just cover the first 3 days of Niu year which have more happenings but it turned out I've plenty of time in between entertaining Niu year's visitors to the house and reading craps and news online during the long festive break as NST and STAR newspapers selling at ridiculously RM2 per-copy in Sibu!!! with lots of ads in between the papers. Serious! Why do we have to pay a little-bit-more for everything that comes from the West Malaysia?

And here is the eight day of Niu Year, I was watching fire-ghost (can't actually remember the title of the movie) on Astrol. Half way through the movie, suddenly the heavy rainfall accompanied by thunderstorm and strong wind hit and caused power failure.

I left the house.

The wind was so strong that it blew off our neighbour's CNY lanterns hanging on the front porch. Apart from that, our neighbour didn't aware of unpredicted Sibu skies they left their clothes on the laundry lines to dry outside the house while no one is at home....

On the eight day, I still have angpows given to me I haven't opened yet. Lately when my aunts and parents give me angpows I'm feeling awkward about it and usually take it from them reluctantly... somehow one of my aunts would give me RM5 and tell me it's for the Good Luck!

Thanks for the angpows!

I returned to the house this morning, the house is freezing cold inside, the air-conditioner I left yesterday after the power failure has been running since the power resumed at the estimate of time- since yesterday afternoon!!! I Didn't realise the air-conditioner we have does not automatically shut off after a power failure.

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The 'Niu' Year, Day Seven

Woke up early this morning, the clear sky at least gave me confidence that my Niu year clothes on the laundry lines won't go damp musty smell. Checked smses on my handphone and remembered I still owe myst3 8 plates of Kampua. Went for a drive and dropped by a Kopitiam which is not flooded where I sat with no need to lift both legs high to avoid yellow murky floodwater under my seat. Ordered a Kampua for myst3, ate the kampua for myst3... still owe myst3 7 kampuas by the time the waters recede, he's probably back in Adelaide enjoying his summer and I'm back to my place of work which is many kilometers away from crampy-compact Sibu town. Myst3, blame the floods not me! I haven't inflicted pain upon others to make myself feel better....

And finally back to work... seven days of CNY festive break compared to nine days last year as nine is the auspicious number resembling plentiful/everlasting... In Hokkien nine 'kao' means 'you'll have enough, and lacking of nothing' so the generous KL based E&E company gave us nine days off every CNY.

The seventh day of Niu year... cracking kuaci accompanied with few glasses of wine whilst watching movies and avoiding rain. As it was Sunday the kids occupied the 40' LCD screen TV in the living room with cartoon after cartoon on CCTVs. Oh btw, I think I've got to add a little here on the movie Marley and Me, it has been the no 1 movie in America for weeks and the dog dies at the end.

Entertained by an energetic 5yo nephew with his drama and all kinds of action.

Made a 12yo niece demostrates how to prepare crysateneum tea.

And drank chrysanthemum tea on the seventh day of Niu Year!

Yay! back to work...

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The 'Niu' Year, Day Six

Today is the first of February already! See how time flies? The CNY break's finally over, by tomorrow every student will be going back to school, every working adult going back to work although some have already started work on the forth day of CNY or for some they don't have the festive break at all due to work.

The exhaustion of the festive open house and house visiting finally over with CNY cookies, carbonated soft drinks hangover, perhaps and getting on back to the usual life again... although the festive is not over yet until the 15th day of CNY that would be on the 9th of February. It just struck me how most of the time we would say, 'by the time we realised it, the year passed in a flash' and then, we realised we have so little time, so many things to do.

Although I spent my sixth day of CNY stuck in the house cracking kuaci and pistachio nuts whilst watching movies, my concern is so much on my schedule that got me distracted from time to time and not so much into enjoying what's playing in front of me. I watched Resident Evil with my mind somewhere else...

On the news today, the flood situation in Sibu is really bad.

(pix) View from Premier Hotel, Sibu on 31 of January 2009. Sibu hit by flood again and again. Read Here>>Here>> as reported by Sibu bloggers.

Here, meet MONEY came with a family from Bintulu for CNY house visiting yesterday. Why Money? Because good name, will also bring in good luck. Haha!

Come to think about names, Chinese parents prefer to choose names that are auspicious or have the good meaning for their children. Because every Chinese character has a meaning and sound, the name of a child also automatically has a meaning and sound usually reflect to good well and manners the child would be carrying throughout his/her life such as in strength and fortune. A good name for each children is very important to a Chinese family.

When I was a student I came to know some of my Iban friends usually go with names such as Tahi (feaces) Tanah (soil) names that make them a laughing-stock in the class I was curious about. Part from what I've heard later from the old folk in longhouse, in the early days in Iban community, bad names for their babies at birth mean to chase away bad evil spirits and bad omens upon the child.

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The 'Niu' Year, Day Five

Local Chinese daily news reporting today, bad flooding conditions hit Sibu and Bintulu on the front page headlines while The Borneo Post only give a slice of little updates, like telling a child, 'it's the monsoon season, don't play in the rain, don't swim in the monsoon drains... and stay away from the flooding areas. It's not our faults...' Well ok, blame it on the rain because it will flood every time it rains in Sibu! ***

According to Chinese folklore every year at CNY, Chinese folk will place a Nien Kao or Kueh Bakul among the Peranakan in the house kitchen to bribe the kitchen god.

I have always thought Nien Kao was pronounced as Tii Kueh in Hokkien (sweet cake) not until today it's actually known as Tnii Kueh (sticky cake) I'm not a devotee of Chinese tradition and beliefs thus a lot of things I do not know about Chinese tradition if you'd ask me, Nien Kao only reminds me of CNY and Nien Kao is best fried with beaten eggs apart from that, I can't remember any offerings were made to god in the kitchen at home.

Rainy day five of the 'Niu' year, we had neighboring house little visitors 'lai pei nien' (house visiting) ...

I kinda just realised that, I crack 'kuaci' (black melon seeds) once a year during CNY, other days I don't even want to look at them :) they are many significance of a lot of things served during CNY, like candies signify sweet year ahead but 'kuaci', I'm not so sure about significance of cracking/eating kuaci during CNY.

I spent the rainy lazy Friday watching several movies and cracking kuaci.

Marley and Me, it's all about a naughty and neurotic dog, in my opinion it was rather a hyperactive dog, can't be trained even a trainer in an obedience school for dogs addressed Marley as 'bad influence on others (dogs) and a virus'.

Marley reminds me of Queen I once had that ended up eventually for adoption at SSPCA, Kuching. I'll not be able to cope with one hyperactive dog like Marley. Marley as a whole isn't cute but annoying, destroying everything and anything it mouth can reach ***

Anyway, meet Koko and Kiki the 2 month old Bichon Frise.

I managed to catch the long released rating at PG-13 (Parents strongly cautioned) for crude sexual humor and queasy homophobia, one finest post-Zionist action-hairdressing sex idiot comedy, Don't mess with the Zohan. And amazed the movie was allowed to screen in Malaysia cinemas.

To be honest I'm stunned with one stupendous insensitive American filmmaker to come up with the movie such as Zohan although they were many other bad influence movies produced by Hollywood I've seen. Zohan portrayed the worst from which male-centered Hollywood comedies are constructed these days based on free sex.

With issues on Israeli-Palestinian conflict presents in the movie as source of laughs, it's true what was said, 'ancient grievances and festering hatreds are no match for the forces of sex, money, celebrity and exuberant, unapologetic stupidity' (from the movie reviews) ...

...the movie’s radical, utopian and perfectly obvious point is that the endless collection and recitation of political grievances is not funny at all, and that political strife is a trivial distraction from the things that really matter.

I ended the rainy fifth day of the 'Niu' Year made 'Asam Prawns' for dinner and watched my 5yo nephew fascinated with fireworks outside the house at night.

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The 'Niu' Year, Day Four

Kueh Bangkit, Kueh Sepit (love letters) and Kueh Lapis (Layered cakes) are among few rich in coconut milk confections made famous by the Peranakan community in Malaysia. During grandma's time, we never missed Kueh Bangkit and Kueh Sepit, they are like a-must-have in most Peranakan homes during CNY.

Kueh Bangkit from Mukah.

Perhaps, we are the almost lost younger generation of Peranakan, we have somehow forgotten about Kueh Bangkit until I was asked, 'what is Kueh Bangkit?' recently.

It suddenly comes back to me, the sweetness taste of greenbeans flour and thick coconut milk blended together to form Kueh Bangkit cookies. It's crispy when you bite it and then simply melt-in-your-mouth, it's simply addictive too.

Cake Lapis (layered cakes), Rendang and Mutton Korma are also authentic Peranakan cuisines. I somehow feel like I should learn how to cook Rendang and Mutton Korma and trace back my Peranakan roots of many rich traditions of authentic cuisines.

On the fourth day of CNY, my 10yo nephew picked up Mahjong on computer games and a 12yo learned how to make jelly.

On the fourth day of Niu Year, the door bell buzzed as early as 8.30am and the first early group of minors came visiting on their own while we were still in our sleeping pajamas then followed by few groups of handsome/pretty youngsters.

Chinese New Year comes with everything new for auspicious Chinese even new notes for angpows.

Guests of all ages 'lai pei nien', which according to the Chinese they are the sign of good things to come. Despite the rain practically the whole day on the fourth day of Niu Year. We had guests from morning till late in the evening. I stayed at home avoiding rain and had watched 'Bedtime Stories'.

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The 'Niu' Year, Day Three Sarikei House Visiting

The third day of 'Niu' Year, the calender marks 'the moon's orbit brings it in closer proximity to our planet' that leads to high tides which have been predicted to cause flash floods in many places in Sibu, the flood situation is also said to be worsen on the fourth day of 'Niu' Year. So drive safely.

Lanang Road leading to Lanang Bridge and Sarikei was submerged under 3fts water yesterday on our journey to Sarikei. We took an alternative housing area short-cut narrow road later to discover everyone else is also using the same road to avoid the flash flood at Lanang and Jalan Salim.

We reached Sarikei at lunch with heavy rain accompanying us and had lunch at my parents' house.

Sarikei is a laid-back homely little town, the population is culturally mixed, with mostly Iban, Malanua, Malay and Chinese predominating.

A friend cooked because we were coming, and delicious food were served to us.

I'd admit growing up in Sarikei, I've observed Sarikei has the honest blend of multicultural community living together compares to many places I've been to in West Malaysia. For many years, we mingled around other races finely and shared each others culture and festive with respect. When I was younger, my dad used to cater Malay Halal cooked food mainly for Malay friends during CNY and we received Malay home baked steamed layered cakes from mom and dad's Malay friends without fail each year at CNY.

Although the economy of the town is primarily agricultural, and Sarikei is farmed for its pineapples and its pepper (wiki)

But recently most farmers turned to bird ranching as an alternative to turnaround due to the town agricultural economy situation. According to a friend, bird ranching is the best and cheapest way to generate income as Sarikei, Sibu up to Miri and Niah caves are known to be the home for swallow or swiftlet, bird nests can be harvested every 50 days year-round and they reproducing very fast.

Bird nests from Sarikei bird ranching we were served with on the third day of CNY. With its health benefits known to the Chinese, bird nests are sought off everywhere and considered to be the most pricey health food among all.

In this recent 10 years, Sarawak has some 1500 bird houses and 99% or almost all of them are illegal the majority of them can be seen in Mukah, Sarikei, Sibu and Miri. Reports said there are only 2 legal bird houses with licenses in Sarawak issued by the authority where as all the other are operating without licenses. With 1500 bird houses, I'm imagining the swallow will out number Sarikei small population very soon.

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The 'Niu' Year, Day Two

The day two of 'Niu' year, I woke up late with a hangover... sleep deprived.
"The hard working 'Niu' is also known as tough animal usually loves rain and water, rain or shine will not daunt a 'Niu' from working hard." No. I'm not talking about myself :P

It was raining on and off on the second day of 'Niu' year (btw 'Niu' in general means cow in Mandarin) We walked in and out under the rainy sky most of the time as we move/visiting from one house to another.

The young ones, wishing you 'kong sii, kong sii... angpow na lai.'

The Niu year celebration as a whole is about house visiting, eating, drinking and collecting angpows (for kids) while for most adults it's the time to get together and chat :)

More guests coming to the house and many houses to visit on our side too.

More firecrackers to lit off.

One the second day according to the tradition the Lion Dance troupe usually come out to take part in the house visiting. I did not get the chance to have a good look at the one visiting our neighbor's house.

Johnie Walker. No. I didn't drink...

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The 'Niu' Year, Day One

The sunny skies on the morning of first Niu day gave me a smile because the sun smiled on me, it wasn't as how the weather forecast predicted, continuous raining into the Niu Year. Nevertheless it rained through the night and the high tides brought flash floods at certain low laying areas, again.

"Hellow there, me and my golden ox want to wish you a Happy Niu Year!"

Most Chinese homes welcome new year with long life noodles (Mee Sua in Hokkien), we had our long life noodles chicken soup with mushrooms first thing in the morning.

As egg symbolises new life, it's a tradition each one in the house to have an egg each in their chicken soup long life noodles and no one is excluded followed by the head of the house (usually the father) wishing everyone 'Happy New Year' or little speeches of New Year's greeting.

Angpows are given by married couples to small children. Young children and unmarried children will greet their parents first with well wishes and collect angpows from them then followed by kong kong, po po's new year words, 'Child, how old are you now?' or 'You are another year old, already.'

For me, Chinese New Year is all about getting old.

Followed by Open House. Open House is when friends, colleagues, cousins both near and far come together and the gathering is about eating, drinking and catching up to do among old friends, far and near relatives and so forth.

The cousins, nieces and nephews come together once a year to lit fireworks.

The drinking session. I had a 'drinking drama', I don't drink. As it's once a year thing with friends I get to meet only once a year, I'm beginning to adapt into it finely. I don't mine a glass or two so I had half glass of Otard mixed with Sprite, first *forced to drink. That was fine followed by the second glass of Martell Golden Bleu not until the third glass, the alcohol start to take effect.

No. I wasn't drank.... very much sober but feeling 'floating'. The ten of us finished almost two bottles of hard drink that afternoon challenging and forcing each other 'one-go'. When everyone's left, I threw out everything into the toilet bowl and had the rest of the afternoon sleeping.

That was my first day of Niu Year.

Red packets (angpows) come in many different designs. My niece's been collecting angpow packets.

Kong Sii Fatt Chai!

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