We Need To Be More Chinese

Guess what day today is? Chinese New Year!

What did we do about it? Absolutely nothing!

We didn't leave the light on for the God of Prosperity. We didn't wake up and immediately wish each other 'Gong Xi Fa Cai', which is a greeting that wishes the other person a prosperous year ahead. I didn't give Aaron his red packet until bedtime and didn't even give one to Adrian (I'll just bank in the money). We had Domino's pizza for dinner! What we did remember not to do was to NOT sweep the floors. At least we didn't sweep away whatever good luck we may have had there. And also, by chance, I wore a red shirt today, the traditional CNY colour.

I ought to be ashamed of myself but I'm not really beating myself up yet. There is still time for me to inculcate some Chinese culture into my boys. After all, its the first year that Aaron and Adrian have not had any Chinese New Year celebrations. We've made it a big deal in all the previous years. Maybe next year we can aim to be back in Malaysia and make a HUGE deal out of it by inviting the Lion Dance to our house. I used to love that as a child.

In the mean time, there are plenty of other ways to teach Aaron and Adrian about Chinese culture. I need to motivate myself otherwise I'm going to end up with imitation Chinese boys. Doesn't seem a little strange that I need to motivate myself to do this? Maybe its because we grew up with the culture around us and learned about it through osmosis rather than my parents consciously teaching us about Chinese ways. I don't even know where to start with the 'Chinese ways'. What exactly do I want to impart? Surely not all the obsession with prosperity (LOL!).

I think I'll need to think about what 'Chinese ways' actually means. In the mean time, there are still 14 days left to the Chinese New Year celebrations.

GONG XI FA CAI everybody!