New Year Eve
Feb 18th, 2007 by Tian
The dinner of Chinese New Year Eve is a solemn affair for the family. It is the time for reunion of the whole family.
My family was much larger when I was young. In my childhood, CNY Eve dinner was the reunion of the entire extended family. Family members from all my (paternal) uncles sat in a big round table to have our meal. The preparation of the grand banquet was in charge by my grandmother. While the reunion was based on patrialineal relations, Grandma commanded the full authority over the dinner. We also ate according to hierarchy.
As the table couldn’t fit all family members at one time, the kids ate first. We started our dinner much earlier in those days—around five o’clock. Then all the adults would sit with grandfather. If there were not enough seat, grandma and women ate last. Being the eldest boy among the grandchildren, I sometimes got to eat with the adults.
In the last ten years, we opted for the convenience of eating out in a restaurant. When all came together, we normally filled 2 to 3 tables.
Our extended family has shrunk over the decades. This year the whole family only filled one big round table. I sensed that extended family is giving way to the nuclear family structure. I missed the noise and clutter of our reunion.
By tradition, Chinese go to temple and offer their prayer in the night of Chinese New Year Eve. Normally, people go just around midnight. It is said to be most auspicious, a good time to receive the ‘God of Fortune’.
Malaccans usually go to Qing Yun Ting (é’云äº) or popularly known as “Temple of Kuan Yin”. Built around 1600, it was one of the oldest temples in Malaysia.
Although my parents were not too religious, they used to take we children there just for the fun of immersing in the crowd. We also stopped going when we kids began to grow up. In our teen, we would go with our school mates.
This year I decided to rekindle this nostalgic journey of going back to Qing Yun Ting, I had not been there for many years. I arrived at the temple just after midnight. To my surprise, the crowd was relatively small. There were not even many pious offering their incense.
This phenomenon puzzled me. Could it be economic recession? Or majority of people opted for watching TV at home.
Perhaps time is changing. Cultural tradition is slowly fading away.
