The year where family unites

Well, well....15 days of Chinese New Year celebration has finally come to an end. No more firecrakers going off in the nights and fireworks lighting up the dark skies. What more, it also means it's the end of endless gambling and drinking nights. It's been a tradition whereby relatives and friends go over to each other's house to gamble and have a good time. So the next round would be next year.

As for the title, you must be wondering why I had put it that way. It's because last year we didn't have a big reunion due to a lot of misunderstandings and irrelavant disputes between the generation before mine. In the end we only had a small family reunion which is a lot of fun as my dad was enjoying himself telling us stories of his younger days and his adventures. We had a good time listening to him and boy, did we laughed till we teared.

This year as usual Penang would have it's own CNY Open House every year. This year it was held on 16 February 2008. The theme for this year's event is about the special events celebrated in the chinese calendar year. For example Chinese New Year, Dragon Boat Festival and Mooncake Festival. Although this event is being held every year, this year's set up has been a let down. The decorations weren't as nice as the previous ones and the performances were lacking.

On the 15th day, a small celebration was held near the Penang Chinese Town Hall whereby a stage was setted up and filled with performances such as choir, traditional dances and of course lion dances. In front of the Kuan Yin Temple, was a small shrine where the public can throw oranges into the man-made wishing well with the hopes that their wish would come true. And for the finale, fireworks was realised for almost 20 minutes. The night was brightened up by the colourful display.

In a nutshell, this year's CNY celebration is pretty okay for me.... there's nothing exciting that catches my interest. Ah will just wait for next year.....