So much happened over the Chinese New Year hols

Like all festivities, Chinese New Year is no different. You invite friends over for a good meal and drinks, and vice versa. The challenge is how do you keep up with the widening circle of friends accumulated in the course of your business and work. Next is how do you ensure that you are able to keep up with all the feasting and yet stay fit. It's just as well as today is Ash Wednesday, as it means having to fast and abstain. So we get a break in-betweeen the sometime senseless nibbling away at the food and cookies spread out from day to night.

But amid all the celebrations, it is interesting to read about how a senior Hamas commander was assissinated in Dubai. The operation, according to accounts in the newspaper, was apparently carried out with the precision of an well-organized body, with the assailants coming from different countries disguised as tourists. No doubt the finger is pointed at the Mossad. It's killing like these that no one claims responsibility unlike those terror acts carried out by the extremists where they would proudly raise their hands to own up their deeds. But while one deputy leader was killed another was captured by US and Pakistan forces. The Taleban denied their leader was captured though the captors are beating their chests to bare their success. Amid all these fireworks in the international arena, a lesser known leader in Sri Lanka is facing trial for purported acts of treason. Fonseka, who lost in the war-ravaged island's presidential race recently, was a new twist to the otherwise happy ending to the years of struggle between the Colombo government and the Tamil Tiger insurgents. Meanwhile, the world is waiting with bated breath on the release of Aung Sung Su Kyi by the Burmese military junta, as neighbouring Thailand's court grapples with its delibrations on whether there's case to confiscate Thaksin billions. Indeed, there's so much happening around the world politically that economic events have to take a back seat.

Chinese New Year

Alas the Chinese are busy spring cleaning and stocking up their homes with all things new, almost. From new pyjamas to brooms and dustpans, households would get themselves a new set to begin the new year. Superstitions undoubtedly tend to get the better of most folks, especially the elderly. The Chinese are steeped in traditions though in these modern times we see an affront on age old practices such as wearing of red or other bright coloured clothes during the festive season. The younger generation preferred black and this invariably dominates their dress code, whatever the day or time of the year.

Nevertheless, it is breathtaking to see the crowd that throngs Chinatown during the run-up to the New Year. Red is still the dominant colour be it for banners, greeting cards, and even CD music covers. The street-side calligraphers are still making a quick buck with their deft strokes of the Chinese brush as they pen words of good fortune for the initiated. These scrolls, if I may call them, will be pasted on the doors, or on the huge pots or urns used for storing the padi. As you squeezed your way around the stalls, amid the cacophony of flute, cymbals and drums accompanying the vocals blasted from over-sized speakers, invariably one will be struck by the changing face of society. Caucasians are easily noticeable, not to mention Muslim women in their headscarves (or tudong), as they too joined in the rush. The strong aroma of roasted pork wafted through the humid air as the stall operators hollered at the top of their voices to draw the crowd's attention.

Pussy willows, tangerine Nien kau, pomelos are undoubtedly the evergreen items that stood the test of time. Once a must for the New Year but now a "no no" item are the range of firecrackers and fireworks that governments from across the continents have banned their indiscriminate firing. Singapore was among the first to ban fire crackers and today even Beijing has put a stop to it albeit I suspect the firing of crackers is still very much prevalent in the countrysides and in some secondary cities.

I was listening to the clanging of cymbals by a Chinese orchestra as I was writing this blog, and my mind was transported to the 1960s when my parents would get into a frenzy putting orders for various new year pastries, sweets and other iconic goodies. I would be assigned the menial task of spring cleaning the windows, lamp shades, fans and light bulbs with pails after pails of water to wash away the cobwebs and dust. A red banner cloth would be hung prominently outside the door, a symbol to show that we are celebrating the new year. A week before the big day, my mother would begin to wrap the red packets or hongbao, before plunging into the kitchen to prepare for the big reunion dinner feast on New Year's eve. But like all things traditional and Taoist, as a prelude to the reunion feast, offerings would be made to the ancestors in the afternoon. Its a ritual that I enjoyed as a student, as I went through the ceremony offering joss sticks and burnt paper offerings into one huge bonfire to signal the beginning of the celebrations. Happy New Year!