Keeping the Tradition

it's been almost two weeks since the awaiting Chinese New Year. now the spirit has lowered down. no more red stuffs. no more buying cookies. no more preparing the great dinner. no more cleaning the whole house. the spirit speedily fades away.

as i looked back when i was young, a month before the celebration i would be busy choosing fancy red clothes. i must wear new attires: new clothes, new shoes, new bag, new hair accessories, and most importantly new underwear! i happily followed my mom cramped among people to get the things to "chinesen" (chinese+en= make sb to become Chinese) my look!

this year i didn't get the feeling of busting malls or markets to buy new clothes for the celebration. my mom indeed kept pushing and reminding that i hadn't bought any clothes yet. i told her that i still had a couple of clothes that i hadn't worn before, so i guessed i could wear them then. then she asked what color of clothes i had. i said "white". she was shocked and told me that it's not a good idea to wear white on cny day. she pushed me to go markets and malls to buy one (only one, at least) new clothes. so i agreed. after bumping many markets and malls, i wasn't satisfied with the clothes (yes, i have a weird taste of clothes). she finally gave up. i could wear my not-fresh-from-the-store-but-it's-still-new clothes.

i totally understand how my mom insisted me to buy new clothes. it's to keep and pass on the tradition to me. if she didn't or i didn't pass the tradition, the tradition itself may die and forgotten. younger generations may not know about it. however, one should not push the tradition to hard, otherwise it'll become annoying, hated, illogical and forgotten eventually. one should have respect on the meaning of the tradition at the first place. older generations may loosen up or adjust the strict and stiff tradition; younger generations may respect the history of the tradition.

in the end, i just wanna wish you happy Chinese New Year (isn't it a little bit too late? but we are still in the period of it, rite?).

A temple around my neighborhood had a wishing tree. hundreds people wrote and put up their wishing cards on the tree.

"i want to get the first rank, so my mom will give a present"

1. buy a two-story house 2. my fish grow in number 3. good health 4. get a car 5. own gold bullion
it seems greedy, but in the end, God wants us to be specific!

to get good health and life. to have the most beautiful mate.

Yenty persuaded god of fortune to share a pinch of his fortune