Cuisine & Culture the Chinese Family Way
This coming Chinese New Year of the Horse falls on 31 January 2014 (Friday). In Singapore, on the eve of Chinese New Year, everyone will go home to have a reunion dinner before heading to the temple (if you are Buddhist) or go to Chinatown or River Ang Bao or some might just stay at home!
Mandarin oranges play a major part in our Chinese New Year. It’s to do with way we pronounce the word, it sounds like fortune. Chinese people love to say only good words on Chinese New Year as it will bring them all the luck and fortune for the coming new year.
We have been busy making Chinese New Year Ang Bao/Pow Star. This is how we made it!
Fans are easy to make – it is mainly sticking and pasting or painting. While the kids had a go at making their fans, I also made two proper Chinese New Year Fans.
If you have been following my Chinese New Year series, you will have seen that I have made a Hello Kitty lantern, Hello Kitty Chinese coin, Fish lantern and Chinese lantern. Today, I made the Chinese New Year Firecracker, Chinese Fan, Chinese New Year Ang Bao/Pow Star with my children.
A New Year, a new start of year! For Chinese, we are just about to start our New Year. As in my previous post, I had mentioned about the Lunar New Year. So before the New Year, all households will do a spring clean to wash away the bad luck and welcome good fortune to the house. According to Feng Shui, it is good to de-clutter your house to allow the good feng shui energy in your home.
We tend to involve the whole household and spend at least a whole day to clean up. From washing windows, doors, walls, oven, kitchen to every corner of the house.
This time of year is the best time to travel down to Asian countries, especially Singapore. Not only are you escaping the bitter cold in the UK, you are going to enjoy the different varieties of foods and festivals there. As a proud Singaporean, I would like to share some of our delicious Chinese New Year goodies. They are only produced once a year to celebrate the Chinese New Year.
Chinese are very superstitious so all the goodies are labelled in red. Why Red? It is corresponding with fire, and symbolizes good fortune and joy.
Yesterday, I made a Hello Kitty Lantern and had a few Ang Bao/Pow left to make a Chinese Coin Lantern. If you would like to find out more on Chinese coins, click the link to direct you to Wikipedia. Some Chinese believe that carrying a Chinese coin in your wallet will also help to ward off evil spirits and bring in money. I am not sure how true it is but I do carry one in my wallet! These Chinese Coin Lanterns are much easier to make compared to other lanterns.
My two sisters-in-law are big fans of Hello Kitty so when I came across some Hello Kitty Ang Bao/Pow when I was last in Singapore, I bought some for them. I bought some for myself too and with these, I decided to make a lantern.
This year Chinese New Year falls on 31 January 2014 and is the Horse year. There is a 12 year cycle and and each year has a different animal to represent them. In a later post, I will blog more about the background.
It traditionally starts on the first day of the lunar month and continues until the fifteenth. The lunar calendar is based off the cycles of the moon, so that’s why the date of the Chinese New Year varies from year to year of the Gregorian calendar.
Today, I would like to show you how I decorated our house with the decorations that my mum sent me. Some of these photos were taken by my sister from a shop in Singapore. It is very important for Chinese families to decorate their house to fill their house with plenty of good wishes e.g. years of brimful happiness, good health, wealth, prosperity etc. It is equivalent to how English people decorate their houses with Christmas decorations and ornaments with wreaths, candles, mistletoe etc. This is our Chinese New Year Wall Decoration!
During this month, I am going to write a series of Chinese New Year posts from making lanterns, zodiac, Feng Shui to Chinese culture. This is my first blog post of my Chinese New Year series. Look out for the rest of the posts! Today, I am going to use Ang Pow (red packets) to make a Fish Lantern. So what is an Ang Pow? It is a red envelope/packet that contain a monetary gift which is given during Chinese New Year or special occasions like weddings or birthdays etc. They are called Hong Bao (红包) in Mandarin or Ang Pow/Bao in Singapore Hokkien or Lai See in Cantonese. Click here to read more about it.
This is a very simple and straightforward Chinese Lantern. The rating of difficulty is 1 out of 5. This is a very small lantern, which measures approximately 13 cm, not including the length of the Chinese knot tassel and string. It is an such easy craft for children to do and won’t take more than 15 minutes to do. It will make a great Chinese New Year theme craft for younger children. You can also make more than one lantern and join them all in a vertical roll or horizontally as a banner.
