Chapter 23: Celebrating CNY in the 50's & Early 60's

In the recent celebration of the CNY, it was heartening to see members of the family and the extended family gathered together to do some of the preparations for the new year reunion dinner.

 

Getting barbeque sets ready

Shopping for food ingredients

These days, the main focus of CNY is to have at least a family reunion to feast together. If time permits, family members might arrange to visit some new places together.

Back in the 1950's and early 1960's, celebrating CNY was a serious matter. Planning and preparation work began a couple of days or even weeks before the actual new year.

Foremost on the list, my mother would go to the shops in the town (no supermarket then) to buy a pair of new clothes and new shoes for each member of the family. Haircut was a must and in our case, all the kids' hair were cut by my father as it was considered too expensive to have it done in the barber shop. My father would have his done in the barber shop while my mother would have her hair done up in a lady saloon.

 

For the numerous dishes to be served during CNY eve, all necessary ingredients would need to be purchased. The shopping list also included goodies and tit-bits for kids and visitors. My mother also bought packages of goodies and tit-bits, tins of biscuits, Chinese sausages, wax ducks etc which would be wrapped up as gifts to be given to our neighbours.

 

Once the gifts were ready, the older kids would be asked to deliver them to the neighbours. In reciprocating our gesture, gifts which were similar in content would be given by our neighbours to us. I had asked my mother the rationale of such practice when in the end, every house got back practically what they started out with. Her usual response was, "It's our traditional practice". It's only in very recent time that I realized how such "illogical" gesture had contributed to the neighbourly bond and friendship which was so evident among neighbours in those days but very much lacking today!

Chinese sausages & wax ducks

 

Nian Kau

Nian Kau was usually one of the items to be included in the gift package. This was of course one item that we ate once a year. As it would be beyond the family budget to buy so many pieces of Nian Kau. They were usually made by my mother. The process started with soaking the glutinous rice grains. Then we would take the bag of soaked rice grains to my grand uncle's house a short distance from our house to use their stone rice grinder to grind the rice grains. My grand uncle had a stone rice grinder or hand-powered flour mill installed in one of the two kitchens. To convert rice grains to become flour, the process involved continuous grinding of the soaked rice grains. My mother would push to rotate the grinder while I helped to add the soaked rice grains into the little opening on top of the grinder. It was a tricky exercise. I needed to quickly stand up with a spoon of rice grains next to the grinder, dropped the content into the hole and returned to a squatting position before the rotating arm came back to hit me if I was still in a standing position.

We found a similar unit of this stone grinder in one little museum in Jonker Street in Malacca in 2012.

 

Large leaves of tarap tree

Next is the house cleaning. Spider webs were to be removed and curtains and mosquito netting were to be washed. A long pole with one end tied with a few twits would be used to clear the spider webs found at all corners of the house. Curtains and all mosquito netting would be taken down and put into a empty biscuit tin container filled with water and washing powder and boiled, washed clean and hung to dry. The timber floor would be scrubbed with brushes but most often using leaves plucked from tarap tree. These leaves which cost nothing were easily obtained from the tarap trees planted at the back of our house. Tarap leaves which are large and covered with minute hairy spikes were ideal to serve as "sand paper" to scrub the floor.

 

In one of the afternoons after school, the older kids would be instructed to walk through the trail starting from our house at the valley all the way to Harrington Road (now renamed Jalan Istana) higher up. Any overgrown vegetation, tall grass which encroached into the path would be cut and cleared to make sure the path was neat. Any slope which might cause someone to fall or slip would be levelled and proper steps formed. This was done in anticipation of relatives who might drop by to visit us during CNY.

 

Every year, a day before the new year eve starting from 4pm till the next morning, the wet market and fish market in town would be opened selling all kinds of stuff needed as food ingredients for new year eve reunion dinner. The road around the market would be closed off from vehicular traffic. The road pavement and all empty space around the market would be filled with temporary stores selling stuff and new year merchandise. My mother would normally go to this night market in the early evening to buy items she would need for all the dishes. Some of us kids would tag along to act as little coolies to carry the stuff.

Pre-CNY Eve Night Market in Kota Kinabalu

Pomelo

Once a year during CNY eve, we took our bath with water boiled with leaves of Pomelo tree. We had no difficulty in getting these leaves as there were a number of Pomelo trees planted around our house. This bathing practice was meant to wash off all bad things accumulated over the year!

 

My father would stop work on the new year eve to take up the role of a chef. He would prepare and cook his specialty - the Hakka Kel Nyuk (Yam stewed with pork belly) which we could only eat once a year.

First day of the new year started early at 5.30am when the kids were all up on the balcony to light the fire crackers. Once the first sound was heard, it triggered a chain reaction when all neighbouring houses in the village would also start lighting the fire crackers non-stop. The sound of explosion would persist for at least the next half an hour.

Breakfast that followed would consist of Nian Kau, Mandarin oranges and goodies. Soon after, my mother would call for the kids to receive the Angpau. In those days, Angpau packages like those given out by banks nowadays were unheard of. Angpau were simply money wrapped in sheets of red papers.

 

First day of the year was a "sacred" day. We were warned by our parents the night before not to utter any word deemed bad or improper. Words like "dead", "bad" or those associated with negativity should not be uttered. In fact, words with pronunciation that sounded like them should not be said as well. Any house fly or cockroach that happened to be found on dining table or in the house would enjoy amnesty because no killing was allowed. No sweeping was also done that day to ensure goodwill, wealth and prosperity would not be accidentally swept away. That probably was the only day of the year that foul language was not heard uttered in all Chinese homes!

 

The Church traditionally held worship service in the morning of the first day of the new year - a tradition which is still being maintained up to these days. For that occasion, we were all in our best with new clothes and new shoes.

 

After the worship service, my father would take us to the fun fair or to watch a movie. In those days, some Chinese schools always took advantage of the new year season to organise a fun fair with the aim of raising fund for their school projects and to provide an avenue for people to have a good time.

 

For the other free time during the new year holidays, kids in the village would come together to light fire crackers and play some of their favourite games.

 

All good time had to come to an end. New year was soon over and school resumed on the third day of the CNY. Much to our disappointment, we had to force ourselves to go back to school and to go through the routine and stress of study while trying hard to recuperate from the hangover of the good time of the new year!