How we celebrated CNY in bygone days

EXCITEMENT and expectation were palpable in the weeks preceding the family’s elaborate preparations for the Chinese New Year (CNY) celebration when I was growing up in the mid-1950s.

We, the Ongs, are a traditional Hokkien family whose ancestors had arrived in the 1830s, at about the same time when Englishman, James Brooke, had first set foot in Kuching.

They had originated from Baijao in Xiamen, China, and had first landed in Singapore before the first Ong, Ewe Hai, had decided at age 16, to make his way by ship, to seek his fortune in a foreign land.

By the middle of 1950, third-generation Ong Kwan Hin had already taken over the mantle of his father, Ong Tiang Swee, as the Kapitan Cina (head of the local Chinese community), as well as other prominent positions in local society.

At his rather grand mansion sited at the road which bore his name, there dwelled some two dozen Ongs with spouses and children encompassing three generations.

Getting ready for the biggest celebration of the year was always a thrilling and exciting time for me – a little boy back then.

I was born there and had lived with my parents and siblings within my grandfather’s household till I was eight, when my father had built his own home just about 100m up the road, and nearer to the then main road that was named at various periods: Pearses’ Road, Ong Kee Hui Road and now, Jalan Taman Budaya.

The preparations would begin weeks before, with Mum shopping for textile materials – it was mandatory in those days that we all had to be suited up for brand new pairs of pyjamas, of all things!

Certainly the shopping would also include new pairs of shoes, shirts and dresses, pants and other personal paraphernalia – everything just had to be new!

At the same time, Mum would also be placing orders for her traditional ‘kuihs’: CNY cookies, cakes and other treats.

Unlike the ease of readily-available and commercially-produced items nowadays, back in those days special orders had to be placed, confirmed and sometimes even prepaid if one were to obtain ‘the family’s traditional favourites.’

Dad had his work cut out as well; he had to put in his orders for the special seafood, be it an extra-large white pomfret or some threadfin and giant prawns, or special quality fish maws.

He would also order the chickens and ducks and pork (ribs for the soup, minced for the spring-rolls and meat balls in the soup!)

Then between the adults and Grandpa, they would call the drinks suppliers: the beer merchants, and also those selling soft drinks.

We also needed mixers like tonic, soda water and ginger ale, especially for the expatriate visitors from the colonial service.

All the above would be delivered well before the grand day itself.

As for us, we would be busy buying up fireworks, sparklers and firecrackers, and to ensure that they would give us the loudest bang for our money, we would dry them out in the sun to ensure their ‘maximised effect’ when the time came.

For many of us, we would also be busy decorating the house with all sorts of trinkets, banners, imitation flowers and stickers.

We would be buying at the corner-shops greeting cards, writing them and sending them off too.

As for me, one of the most exciting parts about the preparation was watching, and helping Mum prepare her special dish for the grand family reunion dinner on the eve of CNY every year – it was the tradition in the Ongs that every family would contribute a special dish towards the dinner.

As there were 10 living children and two spinster daughters, we were always treated to a minimum of 12 different dishes.

Certainly over the years, there were often much more as some would bring additional dishes.

I must admit that by paying attention and watching, as well as helping out by doing simple things like chopping vegetables or stirring the pots, my early love and fascination for cooking had started at a very young age, and has indeed sustained and gained prominence in my latter life.

Of my many favourite foods from the time of boyhood – and can indeed cook them myself – is Mum’s speciality, the Muscovy duck with salted vegetables, tomatoes, salted plums and ginger with Hennessy brandy.

Then there were the fish maw with pork meatballs, and sweet round cabbage with either pork ribs or chicken bones stock.

Finally, who could miss out the scrumptious chicken curry with potatoes in a thick gravy!

Up till this day, all these three dishes are essentials in our family reunion dinners.

The excitement for us kids would start on the evening of every CNY, as we watched, welcomed and entertained our many uncles, aunties and cousins who would be joining Grandpa and Grandma at the grand reunion dinner, which could commence as early as 5.30pm.

We would see them arrive as we launched off our firecrackers at the carpark area, with some of us serving them drinks and snacks.

The dinner itself had to be divided into shifts: the uncles would sit down and start off with Grandpa to begin with, followed by the next round with daughters and spouses of the sons.

The children would be the third in line – we were allowed to linger at the dining table and continue to chat and drink our soft drinks to our hearts’ content.

The uncles and aunties did not linger long, though, as they had to hurry back home to their own family reunions.

Excitedly, we would fire off more crackers and play around with the other cousins before being sent off to bed rather early in anticipation of the big day on the morrow.

Early next morning, we would wake up, get dressed and queue up to pay respects by wishing the elders ‘Sin Chia Jui It’ and receiving our ‘angpows’ (red cash envelopes).

Then off to go visit Mum’s parents and her brothers and other kin.

We would also do the rounds with Dad’s seniors and close friends.

As children, we obediently followed our parents when they did their CNY visiting rounds till we were teenagers, at around the age of 13 or 14.

From that age onwards, we would still comply with the ‘essential visits to family elders’ but usually by mid-afternoon, we would be off on our own to accompany our friends on our own visitations to our ‘usual gang’.

I am pleasantly surprised to see that for the most part, this tradition of house-visiting between family and friends, regardless of race, religion and culture, has continued to this day.

It may no longer be as widely practised, though, and I can foresee that there will come a time when such traditional niceties fade away.

It is already apparent from the younger generation that this ‘socialising’ during festive periods is no longer appealing, or even obligatory for the majority.

It would be a very sad day indeed when it becomes a faded memory.

The celebration is just a few more days away, and I would like to wish all my dear readers who are celebrating, a very happy, blessed and wonderful Chinese New Year!

Gong Xi Fa Cai!