Chinese New Year celebration is always full of auspicious symbols, joy, blessings (in the form of ang paus), good food, new clothes and more. I believed all of us hope that Chinese New Year can last for the whole fifteen days. However, the celebration usually dies down a little after the ninth day when the Hokkien clans pray to the Jade Emperor.
Many of us, especially young adults, are still quite puzzled with why people do what they usually did during the 15th day of the Chinese New Year. In the Chinese tradition, each day of CNY have different meaning as below:
First day of CNY: ‘Birthday of Chicken’
Second day of CNY: ‘Birthday of Dog’
Third day of CNY: ‘Birthday of Pig’
Fourth day of CNY: ‘Birthday of Sheep’
Fifth day of CNY: ‘Birthday of Ox, Cattle’
Sixth day of CNY: ‘Birthday of Horse’
Seventh day of CNY: ‘Birthday of Men’
Eighth day of CNY: The Completion Day
Ninth day of CNY: ‘Birthday of the Jade Emperor’
Tenth to thirteenth day of CNY: Feasting with families and friends
Fourteenth day of CNY: The Lantern Decoration Day
Fifteenth day of CNY: Lantern Festival
In some parts of the country, especially Penang island, there’ll be a gathering over dinner with family members. Once dinner is over and done with, people will gather at temples to celebrate the last day of Chinese New Year. Surely, there’ll be beautiful fireworks, firecrackers, cultural performances, lanterns, lion dances and etc.
One of the fun activities that people will normally do is match-making. Young ladies will be throwing mandarin oranges into the sea/river/stream. Back in the days, women believed that throwing mandarin oranges into the sea on this day will bring them a good spouse.
As the years passed on, this practice have also evolved. Young ladies of today’s world will write their name and contact details onto their mandarin oranges and throw it into the sea/river/stream. On the other side, eligible men can be seen picking them up in hopes to score some mandarin oranges with contact numbers. This is actually a ‘fate activity’ between both of girl and guy. Traditionally, they believed that there is a matchmaker from the moon who will tie red strings on their destiny. Old wives’ tale much at its best, eh?
That’s a wrap for Chinese New Year 2018! If you are not able to toss some mandarin oranges this time around, there’s always next year (and Tinder)! Good luck!
Header image source Here
