Chinese New Year: Past and Present

Chinese New Year celebration had changed over the years,at least for me. Maybe it was part of growing up,if not old.Still remember the times when we were kids? Ang pows seemed to be God-sent gifts,a little red packets containing money which could buy us probably 10 of our favourite ice-creams for every ang pow received.I remember there was once back in the early 90s, I received an ang-pow worth RM20,I was so estatic then. RM 20 then is a lot,considering a chicken rice then cost only RM2. Fast forward to 2006, the red packets seemed to be more colourful and more creative now. You can have geisha pictures on the ang pows promoting the movie, or even the hypermarket name, Carrefour or a lottery company such as Magnum printed on them,working as free ads. I wondered why haven't anyone printed ang pow with our PDRM logo and the motto "Saya anti-rasuah." At least, I can express my courtesy, by greeting them "Gong Xi Fa Cai," whenever I was asked to pit my car in the pit stop they set up at the busiest road with the longest traffics. Besides, those ang pows would not be out of season. So much for the packaging,now for the contents. Ang pows,for me, very rarely break RM20 and never reach RM 50.This year though, I got a few "extra" ang pows,one is for the Chinese New Year itself and another is for luck in continuing my study in overseas. Well,over the years,much have changed. We used to have a lot of firecrackers being lit during Chinese New Year,so much so that one might tinnitus after prolonged exposured to high decibels of the explosive little toys.I am not talking about those red firecrackers only here. Probably it is part of growing up, my brothers,my cousins and I have all grown out of it. Now, firecrackers are still being lit,albeit much less,especially in KL. One can get it if one knows where to get it. Not that I know though. Anyway, we still light up those red firecrackers every Chinese New Year,as if to keep the tradition alive. I guess it s one of the good points of staying far inside an oil palm plantation. Why does Sabah and Sarawak suddenly come to my mind? Hmm....,anyway it was said to be used to drive bad luck and bring good luck to the family - something like that. This post has been sitting in my draft for a very long time but I was busy preparing for my departure arrangements.