‘Cheers to a new year and another chance for us to get it right.’
– American host and TV producer, Oprah Winfrey
HAPPY Chinese New Year to all celebrants. It is not too late to wish you all a Happy and Prosperous New Year because the Lunar New Year is a fifteenth day celebration. The last day of the celebration is the Chap Goh Mei on Feb 12.
This year, I had a quiet Lunar New Year because my younger sister and her daughter did not come back for the celebration.
However, a quiet Lunar New Year does not mean a sad Lunar New Year. My nephew, Kiong invited me for a Chinese New Year reunion lunch on the eve of the Lunar New Year. There, I joined his wife, children, big and small, and son-in-law for a lovely lunch that he ordered from a restaurant.
We feasted on fish, braised pork leg, fried chicken, pork soup and mixed vegetables, etc. He told me he and his wife were too busy to cook. Indeed, when I was there, he was still busy cleaning his car porch.
Kiong is my younger brother’s son; he lived with me, my mother and his other cousins when he was young and still in school.
Although the years have passed and he is a grandfather now, he still remembers me and how I used to take care of him in my own simple ways. I’m glad his wife, children and son-in-law also treat me well.
After my son, Pat, fetched me from Kiong’s house, we immediately went to Pat’s father-in-law’s house for a reunion dinner.
Every Lunar New Year, his in-laws and I usually gather in Pat’s house for the reunion dinner. Pat and his wife, Amelia, would cook the dishes while his mother-in-law would also bring the food she had cooked. But this year, Pat and Amelia cannot cook for us. You see, they just welcomed their second son a few days before the day of the reunion dinner.
But anyway, we had an enjoyable reunion dinner at the father-in-law’s house. I enjoyed the ‘kacangma’ (Motherwort) pork cooked by Amelia’s mother while my son and Amelia’s father-in-law loved the chicken curry cooked by a close Malay friend. There were also steamed fish and fried mixed vegetables on the table.
Amelia’s mother made sure I ate well; she kept filling my plate with food from the table. I even went home with ‘kacangma’ pork and fish maw soup.
Amelia joined us on the dining table, eating only the ‘kacangma’ pork. Like all Chinese women who have just given birth, she follows a strict confinement diet. After that, all of us posed happily and proudly for Lunar New Year pictures with the new baby and proud parents.
When I went home that night, I hurriedly fried some yellow noodles with chicken meat and vegetables. I also fried a few chicken wings. The noodles and chicken wings as well as the ‘kacangma’ pork and fish maw soup were for my meals on the first day of the Lunar New Year. My family still upholds the tradition of not cutting anything with knives or scissors on the first day of the celebration.
Kiong asked me to visit him on the first day of the Chinese New Year but I declined the offer for fear of being stranded by floods in Batu Kawa.
Sarawak and Sabah have been hit by floods of unprecedented scale since the Chap Goh Mei. There were landslides in Miri and severe flooding in Serian, Kuching and Bintulu.
My elder sister, Moi, who lived in a Malay kampung by a river in Bintulu, had to seek shelter with the neighbour who lived above her room because the floodwater entered her room. Her floor was wet and the level of water was about half a foot high. The flood water only subsided early the next day.
When my younger sister, Lan, called Moi, the next afternoon, everyone was sleeping, catching up on their beauty sleep.
Last night, Moi and her family were still keeping guard against the flood water.
“Before you rented the room, didn’t you check whether it was prone to floods?” I asked Moi.
“Don’t you know this is the worst flood in years?” she asked me in return.
At that, I kept quiet. What she said was true.
The Year of the Snake is now here. It is considered a time for reflection, deep thought and personal growth. The Snake,the sixth animal in the Chinese zodiac cycle, is traditionally associated with traits like wisdom, intuition and charm.
Many of those affected by the floods and landslides in Sarawak certainly have lots of time to reflect on their lives and their houses.
Let’s hope the relevant authorities and we all learn from the disasters and what’s happening to our flood-hit towns and city. Where did we go wrong?
The views expressed here are those of the columnist and do not necessarily represent the views of Sarawak Tribune.
