恭喜发财 Kung hei fat choi

恭喜发财 Kung hei fat choi ( we are a Cantonese family!).


We are busy getting ready for Chinese new year. There are lots of preparations to do before new years eve and the new year! We don't do a lot of them but do ( or rather I do! with a little help from Ms Wong! ) spring clean the house. This symbolises washing/sweeping away any bad luck ready to receive any good luck in the new year. In preparation I have even cleaned the inside of all the windows and all the downstairs windows from the outside ( and then it rained??!!!). Then the trusty Dyson, dustpan and brush and broom are put away, and not used for a couple of days as this is thought that this will sweep away any good luck.

The house is decorated with CNY decorations, we have fresh flowers and mandarins in the fruit bowl! We have new notes ( in even numbers!) which are already in the Hong Bao ( red envelope) to give to our younger unmarried relatives). We don't give to my sisters children only the Chinese relatives! No I am not mean! I do give my niece and nephew pocket money each month!!!

Isabella has a new outfit of clothes in red! ( OK and a couple more, new outfits!) she wont wear these on New years eve as we bought her some new summer clothes for our holiday in Thailand/Vietnam in February as she is grown so much and wont fit into the clothes she wore in China. She is now wearing 1 1/2-2 yr clothes!

We dont bathe in Pomelo leaves! Which is thought to bring you good luck for the year, but I have trimmed Isabella's fringe as a few strands were in her eyes! And hubby has booked his haircut for this afternoon. I just haven't had time to go and get a trim!! And I wont be able to get it done for a lunar month! Oh well well I will get it cut before we go away!! However, I will wash it today and tomorrow ( We are going out today and tomorrow!) and not on new years day. As we are going out Isabella shouldnt get too much food in hers!

On new years eve we meet up with our UK London family for a traditional Chinese dinner. We are a Southern Chinese family so have fish, noodles, desserts and other traditional dishes that symbolise wealth, or luck. Normally my FIL cooks and I am sure he slaves away for most of the day! But this year we are going out to a restaurant which has really yummy sea food!. On new years day we should go and visit elder relatives! But as we have seen hubbys the night before, and mine live 250 miles away!, plus its a normal working day!

We will also open the doors on new years eve to bring in good luck for the year ( but its freezing so not for too long!). Also we wont cook on new years day as its considered unlucky to use knifes! Some people dont eat meat either. So as its a Monday we will get a take away and I will cook Isabella's dinner on Sunday before we go out and just re-heat this! (See no housework on Monday or cooking? Cant be bad!).

So that's all the tradition's that we normally do! I guess modern Chinese families just adapt to fit in with their lifestyles. Here is the Wikepedia link for CNY customs but it does vary from region to region!