there are some things that i still do these days as part of tradition. these include tying 8 shoots of garlic ("sng" in hokkien) and placing them in my living room over the chinese new year period, placing oranges by these garlic shoots, buying rice cake (nian gao) for lunar new year as well as doing spring cleaning.
firstly, garlic shoot in hokkien is pronounced as "sng" and it sounded like "counting", meaning i will be blessed with money to count through the year. when i was young, my mum would purchase garlic shoots and place them in her marketing basket every year. she explained that this symbolizes having money in the basket, and that means the family would be blessed with abundance of food through the year! she would also cook them for reunion dinner as a standard "must have" dish. it's a very hokkien thing as far as i know. as for the rice cake (nian gao), my mum would offer them to the gods a week before lunar new year before sending them back to heavens. apparently, there was a story that goes something like - offer sweet rice cake so that the gods will report sweet and good things about the family. and another story that suggests that because the rice cake is so sticky, the gods cannot say anything bad about the family as their mouth will all be all stuck... heh heh... whatever it is, nowadays, i purchase the rice cake as i thought it is a very chinese thing to do and that after chinese new year, i can fry it for tea/ dessert (yes, i love rice cake!). and as for spring cleaning, it is simply the right thing to do. a perfect excuse for me to do my annual major cleaning of the house. it is not just a tradition thing, it is also a hygienic act.
bee asked if by doing them, i am being superstitious and not buddhistic. i thought about it and decided that no, i choose to think i am just observing some traditions as these practises connect me to the very sense of being chinese (or at least, my being a part of my family)...
:-)
firstly, garlic shoot in hokkien is pronounced as "sng" and it sounded like "counting", meaning i will be blessed with money to count through the year. when i was young, my mum would purchase garlic shoots and place them in her marketing basket every year. she explained that this symbolizes having money in the basket, and that means the family would be blessed with abundance of food through the year! she would also cook them for reunion dinner as a standard "must have" dish. it's a very hokkien thing as far as i know. as for the rice cake (nian gao), my mum would offer them to the gods a week before lunar new year before sending them back to heavens. apparently, there was a story that goes something like - offer sweet rice cake so that the gods will report sweet and good things about the family. and another story that suggests that because the rice cake is so sticky, the gods cannot say anything bad about the family as their mouth will all be all stuck... heh heh... whatever it is, nowadays, i purchase the rice cake as i thought it is a very chinese thing to do and that after chinese new year, i can fry it for tea/ dessert (yes, i love rice cake!). and as for spring cleaning, it is simply the right thing to do. a perfect excuse for me to do my annual major cleaning of the house. it is not just a tradition thing, it is also a hygienic act.
bee asked if by doing them, i am being superstitious and not buddhistic. i thought about it and decided that no, i choose to think i am just observing some traditions as these practises connect me to the very sense of being chinese (or at least, my being a part of my family)...
:-)
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