Chinese New Year

In another one week's time, it will be Chinese New Year or CNY. I don't remember much about CNY during my childhood days except that we used to get RM2 angpows from our uncles and aunties. Those days people were not very rich and RM2 was the standard rate, although I had a rich uncle who used to give us RM50!

My mother has 2 sisters and 4 brothers. In Hock Kien (my dialect) we had to respectfully addressed them as tu-an koo for eldest uncle, jee koo for second uncle, sar koo for third uncle and se-an koo for fourth uncle. My eldest auntie had to be addressed as tua-ee and youngest auntie, se-an ee. When we visit them for CNY and vice versa, we had to greet them by their titles as a matter of respect. It was only after greeting that they would hand us the customary angpow. This was the highlight of CNY for us not to mention the delicious jew hoo char and other nyonya food that my mum used to make for the festival.

Mother was a great cook. She used to make those fantastic nyonya stuff like lor bak, poh piah, chye boay, poh lay kan for our reunion dinner. I remember that we did not have sit down families like some families....we just ate whenever we wanted. My husband and I decided that this was not to be so for our own family and every year we have been arranging our own reunion dinner with our children and my mother. This year, Tim and his brother is hosting a dinner for his brothers' wives and children - steamboat.

My nyonya grandma was someone really special. She was a grand old dame  who, when she was alive, was the uniting factor in her family. Every CNY eve, she would host the best steamboat dinner in town in her little house cum shop in Ayer Itam. Grandma and grandpa ran a shop in Ayer Itam near the famed Kek Lok Si selling famous Penang food stuff like nutmegs, cincaluk, hea kor, tau sar pneah, pong pneah and all sorts of stuff that appeal to tourists.

As children, we used to run in between the red-clothed tables from the back to the front of the shop just taking in the charcoal smell of the steamboat containers and the sight of the delicious raw seafood prepared for the steamboat. My grandma was also a kapur sireh addict and we would roll her sireh for her whenever she wanted. It was fascinating to see the red stains on her from chewing the kapur sireh (translated nutmeg chalk).

However due to the financial constraints of my family, my mum would collect all the angpows from us for recycling purpose. The same angpows will then be re-packed for her to give out to others. As my family was considered a big family (5 of us) we can be regarded as a money spinner indeed! However I never begrudged her because I thought that was what all mothers did with their children's angpow. Later I learnt that most children got to keep their angpows, not surrender them to their parents.

When we grew older, mum heard our grumblings and complaints on this practice and she allowed us to keep 50% of the monies collected.

Today my children do not have to surrender their angpows to us or pay us angpow tax! Thanks to my late father who ensured that we all had opportunities to study up to tertiary level, all my siblings have done well in their chosen profession. Even though we are 4 girls (with one boy as the exception) we were well able to buy houses and cars of our own. We are even able to send money to my mother every month! I hope my children appreciate what we have done for them and not squander away their educational inheritance by being lazy in their studies!