Today may be the first day of the Lunar New Year but it is already the second day of family fun. Though my aunt, uncle and parents are only flying back from Florida as I type these words, my cousins and I joined the rest of my paternal extended family for some loony Lunar New Year’s Eve partying! That may mean drinking and dancing when the Gregorian calendar changes but to our family ringing in the Chinese New Year means devouring loads of delicious traditional foods.

After picking up our travelling elders from the airport, we’ll all get decked in red and tour the town, bringing symbolic (and edible) gifts to the many loved ones in our extended family. At each home we will exchange heartfelt greetings–wishing each other good health, prosperity, luck and all things auspicious.

The unmarried youngins (and not so young) will gratefully and graciously collect red envelopes full of money from the married folk. We will all laugh, chatter and nibble on tasty morsels only available at this time of year.

My dear friends and family in Asia are enjoying long holidays and partying hard. Whether you’re lying taking in the sights on beautiful Pulau Penang, watching a lion dance in Hong Kong or eating chan gio ninh mang as you an tet in Hanoi, I’m sending you good Chinese Canuck cheer!

Celebrating today or not, I wish all of you all the joy in the world. May you and yours live your lives to the fullest and help others do the same.

This entry was posted on Sunday, January 29th, 2006 at 10:53 am and is filed under Love, Wheee!.
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