Chinese New Year, to me, is more of a holiday than a festival. It also has few of the happiest moments in my life so far, it wasn’t about the celebration, but more of a family gathering. Of course we did the praying and what was needed to be done, but the fun was in the days after, I was really close to my cousins back then, we have a great great time. The one thing I like most is when I get to meet so many relatives, from the closest ones I know of to the ones I at least know of, we all get to chat and get to know each other more; it’s like a relative version of blind date. People came from all over the world to gather at this one place, then we start eating and praying and chatting and partying together until everyone of us goes back to where we belong. We normally go to our hometown, and I always get to become the tour guide/boss of the relatives who are expats. I’ve always given them information about the food, the name of the place, and what is this and what is that, I think I’ve always done the job great.
As a kid, Chinese New Year is like the period when you get a lot of good stuffs, but most importantly, the pocket money. I’m not saying this because I was or am greedy, but it’s the only time of the year where you get a lot of money for FREE. The more relatives you have, the more pocket money you will receive. There were some years when I still have too much money even after buying so many toys and snacks, I still remember the feeling I had back then, it was awesomeee.
One week before the Chinese New Year, people start cleaning up their entire houses, it’s believed that everything should be new and be ready to welcome the new year.
Orussey Market will be closed on the day of the festival and that’s why people would even have order everything they need before it closes. Most of the people here shops for Chinese New Year goods in Orussey Market, the market is well-known for its chinese goods.
There are so many things needed to be done for Chinese New Year, the main thing is to pray. But praying isn’t that easy as you thought it was, before you get to offer the prayers, there are things you need to buy. Foods are very important for Chinese New Year, depending on how much you want the quantity of dishes to be, that much will be the offer for the prayer. Whether you have twelve dishes or just two, if you sincerely pray for the love and care and peace and happiness for the year, God will not hesitate to give it to you. The quantity and quality of foods and goods we offer to God does not really matter, it’s a tradition I know that, but if you see it in another angle, all of it are just for the formalities. There is no way you’ll get more luck if you offer more stuffs and for those who does not offer anything at all on Chinese New Year, wouldn’t they get anything at all?
My family has a tradition of going to one specific temple to pray every single year, it’s the most visited chinese temple here in Cambodia. We normally go there by the second day of the festival, after offering food to the Gods at home. That night we would normally party very hard, we would eat, chat, play cards, drink and sleep at around midnight. But that’s not it, my parents said the adults normally will chat until three or four in the morning, then go to bed afterwards. The second day, we’ll usually wake up around eight or nine, and have a very niiice home made breakfast and we’re ready to go. The procedure of what to do in the temple is very hard to master, my parents do not even know the steps by steps as clearly as my grandparents do. There are so many Gods in their, it’s not like one has better superpowers and one has a weaker, it’s never like that, it’s just that each God has represents one power of their own. I do not know what God has to be offered to pray first, but it doesn’t really matter, as I said before, sincerely pray and you’ll get what you need.
The atmosphere is very hectic, people come from all over the country to pray here. Smoke from the incense sticks are everywhere, I could not open my eyes the moment I got in the main praying area. After praying, we would get ourselves some magic water, water which was perfumed and blessed by the temple, then we would wash our faces with the water in a meaning of washing away all the dust and bad luck. Before going back home, there is still one more optional thing to do, buying sugarcane. Sugarcane are mostly bought and kept in houses until it is rotten enough to be thrown away, it is said to mean sweetness and happiness in the family due to the sweetness of the sugarcane itself. Some would go on a trip rite away after the praying site, but my family tend to go back home and have a simple lunch and take a good afternoon nap, just to make sure we’re all ready to repeat whatever happened last night, again.
Lanterns are the small side dishes that makes the Chinese New Year complete. As we all know that the Chinese do love the color red a lot, they use it nearly every where and anytime of the year. Lanterns are not just red, but the flame that is sitting inside is RED, that’s a whole lot of redness. Red means every good there is in this world, the joy, the fun, the happiness, the luck, it is the ultimate color. Though I do not play with lanterns anymore on the festival, my cousins and my little brother still do, they would just lit it up and start running around with it, and desit, it’s fun. When I was young, I enjoy it much better, I used to live with my grandparents near The Riverside, and we all know how excited The Riverside can be. At night, I would go around with them with my lanterns hanging around, the night scenery of The Riverside never fails to give me a great performance.
Chinese has been impacting the whole world these recent decades, they have been to every corner of the world to make their investment. Just recently, it was reported that China has exceeding America economically, it has been said like this for a very long time, but it’s just that the world has not accept that it has actually become a fact. To be honest, the authenticity and classics that China has, for now, the standards are not as high as America, but who knows? It’s China for goodness sake. Although when people talk about China and what’s there, we dun tend to feel as much excitement and curiosity as when we hear people talking about European countries or just AMERICA itself. It might be because the citizens of the world just have not gotten used to it yet, people just cannot believe that China has exceeding America this fast, not a single person expected this to happen two decades ago, it wasn't feasible to even predict, dun mention happening. Economically, it has probably covered the entire world, should China culturally do it as well? Well, China has sure done it here in Cambodia, that’s why we have the Chinese New Year.
Will the Chinese New Year be the next Christmas?
