恭禧發財 Happy New Year

恭禧發財

Happy New Year

So today is the first day of Chinese New Year.  The Year of the Dragon.  The dragon is a symbol of power and strength, and those born under this sign are often predicted to have lucky and abundant lives.  Their characteristics are said to be strong, intelligent and self-assured.  Due to this there is an expected baby boom in the Far East.  Baby Boom Article

Happy new year to all our friends and family x

Chinese New Year - Prep Continues

So the next thing I will be doing when my holiday starts is doing up the house for the new year.  Lots of spring cleaning....lots of housewife chores! Along with that I will be putting up some chinese decorations known as fai chun.  These can be cute decorations with a lot of new year sayings.  The sayings all have a different meaning and mean a lot to Chinese people.  This is what I had last year.....(spot the Hello Kittys!)

This one character means 'fortune'.  You can imagine this to be quite popular.

Much luck and much prosperity

The literal translation is 10,000 things to your will, in other words: - May your 10,000 wishes come true

For more sayings visit http://www.cantonese.sheik.co.uk

xoxo

Chinese New Year - The Prep Starts

Chinese New Year is less than two weeks away, so my prep started today.  Yes still got some time but remember my new years resolution, to be more organised out of work.  The prep today was preparing the red envelopes for CNY.

Red Envelope is known as lai see in cantonese or hongboa in mandarin.  This is a monterary gift.  The red colour of the envelope symbolises good luck and is supposed to ward off evil spirits.  The designs of the red envelope has changed over time, gold and red envelopes are the most popular.  The ones I'm giving out this year are gold...aren't they cute!

The amount of money contained in the envelope usually ends with an even digit as in chinese beliefs off number money gifts are traditionally associated with funerals.

So being married during Chinese New Year is quite costly as the red envelopes are typically given to the unmarried.   So me and Sin won't be receiving any :-(, oh well.

xoxo