and yet another white chinese new year….
2 weeks ago during our winter holiday, around 12 chinese from our academy(myself included) were invited to go to the zoopark opposite our hostel. reason? to take to photos with 3 PIGS ..
it was actually a small interview arranged by a tv station in conjunction with chinese new year…even the russians know that this year is a pig’s year…and since they are too sua ku never to see live pig here in nizhny novgorod….they’ve decided to import 3 black pigs all the way from china and treat them like endangered species in the zoo…like the panda in china…
the point is, i appeared on tv, saying something i have no idea what i was talking about, and my words were being translated wrongly, but who cares….as long as the cameraman managed to catch a good angle of me….hehe
but the funny thing was, we were told about our chinese tradition by the russian guy from the tv station….great…. do you know that the Chinese will go to the respective animals each year during chinese new year to feed them, pet them and make a wish upon the coming new year….and they will be blessed?? for eg, you feed the pig during pig’s year…and chicken during chicken’s year…..i dunno about you, but after 20 years of living in chinese culture, i’ve never heard such "western" tradition…
but even if there is such tradition, how are we supposed to pet tigers or feed the dragon, if there’s any??
the russian insisted that there is such a tradition even if we tried to explain him what cny means…. but i guess it was too complicated to tell the whole story of "nian"…so for simplicity, we just agreed with him and fulfilled his request to feed the pigs with the biscuit that he brought, while saying some wishes while petting them..
anyway, today is the 1st day of the pig’s year….and i would like to wish everyone a very HAPPY CHINESE NEW YEAR…may you have a prosporous year ahead…
it’s very pitty that this year’s chinese new year fall on one week after my class starts, if it comes earlier, i would have returned home and at least get to feel the new year atmosphere before class starts…instead of touring in italy….although i did not regret it at all…
this is my 3rd year not celebrating cny with my family, not going on cny visiting with friends…..not eating cny cookies and ba kua on time…(coz i will ask my mom to buy them when i go back in summer…hehee…)..and it’s still winter here although chinese new year is supposed to be celebrating the coming of spring….
of course the chinese community here won’t settle with living chinese new year as any other ordinary days…on the chinese new year’s eve, which was just yesterday, around 20 of us from the 3rd year and 2 from the 1st year were eating reunion dinner together…we cooked around 10 dishes…but all of us were up to our limit after the 5th or 6th meal was served…
chinese new year is not complete without gambling….well i don’t usually gamble, but i did last night….till around 430 am this morning……
there were some sense of togetherness yesterday when we were all sitting around the table and eating together….chit chatting….and making fun of each other…the laughter and the joy was very comforting…..
i managed to did some last minute shopping for cny clothes…well, it’s not a must for my family to wear new clothes during cny, but if i don’t buy it during cny, there’s no other chance i will buy new clothes here in russia…
next week all the chinese community here will have a chinese new year celebration for all the malaysians….and i am in charge of the cooking part…..i really hope things will turn out to be very smooth by then…and everyone will enjoy it…
恭喜发财, 新年快乐,万事如意!!!
