Year of the ox haiku
I was asking Jonathan online about what I was supposed to do during Chinese New Year. He gave me some fairly straight forward advice - eat whole fish and ask for money (Hong Bao). The banana-fication of my soul has brainwashed me and I barely remember asking for those things as a child. For those not familiar with the tradition, basically little kids get spoiled with money during Chinese new year. I don't remember whatever happened to the money after New Years though... maybe they all went into my "trying to use cavities to make grillz all the way back in the 80's" fund. Yea I'm a candy fan.
Gotta tell you though, it probably helps to get red envelopes in a country where there's lotta inflation. If your aunties stuffed your red envelopes with Zimbabwe money, you'd all be like, "WHOA. A million dollar bill!" Except you'd be too young to understand inflation and that the bill is worth as much as a White Castle coupon. Tricking kids to make them feel like they're rich with candy money is just about the best childhood experience you could ask. Well, the other problem is if you can't remember your childhood then it's just kind of pointless. Sorta.
The other tradition is eat the whole fish tradition. I'm actually familiar with this one because if you try to buy fish on New Years, all the fish market guys tell you they won't kill it for you. Even the dead ones, they won't clean it for you. You can take it home and do it yourself, but it's bad luck. Apparently the word for 'fish' and 'extra'/'plenty' sounds the same in Mandarin. There's a saying that's mentioned around New Years, and you say it to other people to wish them another year of abundance/plenty. And since if you cut up your abundance and gut it and scale it, it's not so abundant anymore. I think. Whatever the case may be, there's no fish dying on Chinese New Year in Chinatown.
Happy New Year! Go Obama!
what a funny and cobbled together haiku. where are the pictures of the beefyness?
Ang
January 28, 2009 12:31 am
all the beefyness? i don't post pictures of myself. don't be silly.
no one is reading this post. haha.
Danny
January 29, 2009 4:04 pm