When I was little, I used to think that Chinese New Year (CNY) was uncool. Except for the goodies and the Ang Pow (red packet). I wondered why the adults made such a big fuss over Chinese New Year.

Now that we are so so far away, I really miss the celebrations. There is hardly any ÇNY átmosphere here in Stockholm. But that does not stop my friends from China. It is interesting to see them rush about their chores… such as spring cleaning their homes, putting up Chinese greetings in their homes, preparing a big feast for CNY eve. To the Chinese, CNY is as big as Christmas and it is important to follow the tradition…even to the extreme of not cleaning their homes for 15 days (now, that is quite a good excuse but I don’t think i can ‘tahan”).

Maybe I am becoming old and sentimental, I really miss the warmth of the family at the reunion dinner, the get-togethers of good friends, the smiles on the faces of kids receiving their red packet, the food and even the noisy Chinese New Year songs. So when we have no celebrations at all this year in Stockholm, I feel a little disappointed that my kids may forget this important tradition. They must know their chinese customs.

We tried to replicate this by inviting our swedish family for dinner last weekend. We had a small feast of homecooked Hainanese Chicken rice, Beef rendang, Samsui Chicken and Spicy brinjal. Nicke’s family exchanged oranges with us, we blasted CNY songs in the house and ate whatever cookies we can find.

So from now on, if we cannot go home for CNY, we decided that we will do our best to bring CNY to us in Stockholm.