Soon the Chinese/Lunar New Year, or Spring Festival as it is called in China, will be upon us. (11th February) This will be the year of the Iron Ox in the Chinese zodiac:
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It will be a different celebration for many due to the Covid-19 pandemic, with limitation on the number of people that can be together for the family reunion dinner and the normal family visits:
A lot of Malaysian Chinese who work in Singapore normally go back to their home town/village to celebrate CNY with their family every year. Buses and trains are fully booked weeks in advance and the que at the Causeway can be VERY long in the days before and after CNY. Here a 3-hour que in 2017:
On News Years Eve I eat 12 grapes, on New Year’s Day I eat black eye peas & cabbage but Chinese New Years is far better when it comes to food for good luck. Tomorrow night we have reservations at the same Chinese restaurant that we ate at last Chinese New Years which was on Jan 25th 2020. Great food with great company. We are optimistic for a prosperous lunar calendar year to all.
Look @Lee_Shore , when someone starts a thread about a Merry Christmas or a Happy Easter we don’t need some political b.s about Santa Claus having type 2 diabetes or the Easter Bunny spreading plague through bunny droppings he left laying around. It’s a good hearted, millenniums old tradition of celebrating the lunar new years for crying out loud.
I didn’t see the post as being political nor was it intended to insult anyone but since it’s considered insensitive or inappropriate, I deleted it. Problem solved. Happy year of the Iron Ox.
Everything is becoming political these days. Comments about girly boys in China and baseball managers taking sides in Chinese internal affairs are seen as insult by ordinary Chinese on Weibo.
Vietnamese lunar New Year is about the same and a big deal here in our home. There is certain food that is only available before and during this celebration. I took mama to several Asian markets yesterday so she could get the proper food stuff. Vietnamese food is different than Chinese but to me it all smells the same.
I have a dragon tattoo on my left arm so I have that part covered.
The ox is held up as a paragon of virtue in Chinese culture for being honest and hardworking.PHOTO: REUTERS
Most people can’t wait to chase away the Rat Year, a grim year in which millions of lives and livelihoods were lost to a virus that could have leapt from wildlife to humans.