Sibs running on
zero hours of sleep, three hours of sleep and two hours of sleep respectively.
Happy lunar new year everyone!
I'm running on three hours of sleep right now, but I'm gonna power through this entry.
Chinese new year's one of my favourite time of the year, mostly because it's one of the few rare occasions when the city actually comes to a pause and everyone gets together with the family and loved ones.
Growing up, new year has been one filled with traditions, such as staying up after reunion dinner on new year's eve 除夕 all the way until the end of 初一. (This practice is based on the belief that staying up through the first day of the new year will increase the longevity of the elders in the family.)
And although I do believe it is a superstition, I do appreciate that it is based on the value of filial piety, and therefore carry on the tradition.
I realised that as the older generation (our grandparents and great grandparents) pass on, much of the cultural practices and traditions that were once meaningful, also fades in time.
It's kind of a pity, really.
I remember that when Ah-ma was still around, we would go over to her place on new year's eve and have our reunion dinner and a mandatory glass of sparkling juice each. The adults would sit around the living room and watch the television while we run around the rooms playing hide and seek or with some toys that I don't quite remember anymore.
But I do remember that we had a lot of fun, and it was warm, and nice.
Now that Ah-ma has passed on, our relatives do pop by on new year's eve and on new year, but not together as a collective whole. We make small talk, about school, work, driving, army those kind of stuff. But in between these conversations are bouts of silences when we just sit and look into thin air, not sure what to speak of next.
For the most part, I think we are still trying to establish a new routine- finding a new set of things to do and things to say after being displaced from a yearly tradition that we've been used to for the past 20 or so years.
That's culture i guess, and life.
And one day when I have kids and this routine has concretised itself, it is subjected to change again.
I'm glad that at least we're all doing this together as a family. (:
LYCHEE MARTINI COOKIES from CDC
-11 days later-
Hi guys, i just realised i haven't actually posted this and it was abandoned in the drafts folder. Whoops.
On a side note, there have been many cny festivities going on in the past week, and I think my family has established a new tradition of some sort. Or at least among us teens.
Y'know, technology is truly a double edged sword. I'm glad that it's ironically our phones that allow my cousins and I to reach out to each other more frequently. Yay to closer family bonds (:
Okay, it is really strange continuing on an old entry- rather awkward and aloof I think.
So here's the abrupt ending that might fit this entry.
