What I Like & Dislike About Chinese New Year

Here's wishing all my brothers, friends, readers a very happy and prosperous new year! May this new lunar year brings you good health, good fortune, and good luck in everything you do.

Today is the 2nd day of the Chinese New Year. How was your first day of Chinese New Year? Each time this festive arrives, there are things that I like and things that I don't like about it. Here's a list of what I like and dislike about Chinese New Year.

What I Like About Chinese New Year:

• getting ang-pows. Who doesn't like receiving it? Hahaha.
• no need to go to work for at least 2-3 days according to the public holiday dates.
• it's all about food.
• smooth traffic with no congestion on the road because most of the people are out of town.
• get to eat Mandarin oranges and bak-kwa (a Chinese salty-sweet dried meat product similar to jerky.)
• no need to rush and got stuck in a massive road congestion back to hometown to have reunion dinner with family because all my family members and relatives are staying in KL.

What I Dislike About Chinese New Year:

• the hot weather. I sweat even under the fan at home.
• buying new clothes. Honestly, from young, I don't really get excited to get new clothes because old t-shirts are so comfy. Hahaha.
• have to entertain distant relatives even though you're not that close to them but you have to fake with a smile.
• cannot enjoy deep sleep at night because the firecrackers are blasting up till past midnight.\
• have to wake up very early if we have to go out for visiting relatives.
• difficult to eat outside because most of the restaurants and coffee shops are closed for at least 5 days.
• the price of food, vegetables, meat, everything is more expensive during Chinese New Year.

This year, my family cannot celebrate Chinese New Year because my mother passed away recently. It is a Chinese custom that when someone in your family passes away, the family cannot celebrate Chinese New Year as the family has to observe the mourning period for one year. This means that we cannot wear red clothes, cannot decorate the house for Chinese New Year, and cannot do visiting to other people's house. This is to avoid bringing bad luck into other people's house but they can come to your house. Apart from that, the family of the deceased cannot give out ang-pows to others. All these are the Chinese grieving etiquette.