[20/02/2010] The Joy(s) of Kung Hei Fat Choi!

[20/02/2010] Manila Bulletin

The Joy(s) of Kung Hei Fat Choi!

There is a famous saying that goes: “If China sneezes, the world catches a cold.” I would rather rephrase it this way: “If China celebrates, the whole world celebrates” and I was referring to the Chinese Lunar New Year and the entry of the Metal Tiger Year. It was an auspicious event and I was lucky to be in the middle of it — right in the heart of Hong Kong.

It was still winter cold in Hong Kong but the festivities were warm enough to curl one’s toes, mine especially. Hong Kong, a special administrative region of China, celebrated a three-day Chinese New Year—from February 14 to 16—which meant a three-day holiday in both government and private institutions. Hong Kong locals have this unique way of celebrating Chinese New Year:

The day before the New Year—February 13. Hong Kong locals normally spend this day by buying gifts and flowers. Streets were so busy and packed with the thick crowd of shoppers in preparation for the Chinese New Year’s Day. Having witnessed how the locals crowded the streets of Fa Hui Park Flower Market, at first, if it’s your first time in Hong Kong, you would probably think they’re buying flowers for Valentine’s Day which coincided with the Chinese New Year this year. But hey, we buy flowers on Valentine’s Day but not as busy and faithful as they do. Flowers rank No. 1 in the long list of their New Year traditions as they symbolize prosperity.

The wide array of both imported and locally-grown lovely flowers for the shoppers to choose from included the daffodils, rose cabbages, tulips, peach blossoms, pussy willows, peonies, as well as potted kumquat plants. But the peach blossom plant with lai sees—red packets with candies in it— are the most decorated in every establishment around the city, and it has to be taken out after about two weeks for this plant doesn’t stay long.

New Year’s Day—February 14.  Most big establishments started the Day by staging the traditional Lion Dance performances. This tradition is performed to ward away evil spirits (in every nook and cranny of the building), and start the year only with good and positive spirits. The lively and spirited performance with the loud beating of the drums at the Langham Hotel was the one the author witnessed together with other foreign media and tourists. Before the Lion Dance ended, the lion (performer) grabbed through its wide mouth the sang choi (lettuce) that was hanging on the ceiling. It symbolizes prosperity because its name sounds like “to bring about wealth and riches.” After the dance, the fortune god distributed lai sees with chocolate gold coins in it. When we received our lai sees, we were told that we were not supposed to eat it but to keep it in our wallet for money luck until possibly the end of the year. Over lunch sponsored by Cathay Pacific and the Hong Kong Tourism Board (HKTB), we were again given another lai see which had HK$20 in it.

Next stop: 1881 Heritage. It is Hong Kong’s first declared monument on Canton Road in Tsim Sha Tsui and was the Headquarters of the Hong Kong Marine Police. Now, it stands majestic as a picturesque shopping mall and heritage hotel with its unique Victorian architecture.

But the most anticipated Night Parade staged by the Cathay Pacific Airways and co-hosted by the HKTB at the Cultural Centre Piazza in Tsim Sha Tsui was the highlight of New Year’s Day. You wouldn’t mind however bad the weather was as it was so windy and drizzly on an open stadium close to Victoria Harbour, with the spectacular performances and floats of the various performers from around the world. The San Diego Girls, Switzerland Tiger Band, Paris Fire Brigade Gymnastics Team, Indian Arts Circle, Russian Dance Ensemble, Notting Hill Carnival were but few of the numerous awesome performances. The Lion and Dragon Dance with the float of the Tourism Board was a dazzling finale.

The second day of the New Year—February 15. Thousands of people went to the Wong Tai Sin Temple to pray for good fortune in the Year of the Tiger. It was more of a family trip as you could see both young and old doing the rituals. First, they bought joss sticks or incense and good luck decorations mostly in red and gold colors at the stalls outside the temple, lit the incense, offered these to the gods and prayed solemnly. The interesting part was when we were told to write down our wish on a small piece of paper and posted it on the wishing wall. We saw them writing down their wishes in neat script, ours were the only ones written in English!

The visit to a local family in Yuen Long in the New Territories takes the cake as this was how we learned how the traditional Chinese family celebrates the New Year. We met the Mak family: Vanessa Mak, a secondary school English teacher and her husband Sik Chung Mak, a painter, who played our host. All three generations of the Mak family were present. They were gathered together for bai nian (Chinese greetings) every New Year, because for them, being with family is the most important part of the celebrations. Elder members of the family were playing mahjong all throughout the gathering until we left. We were served with, at first, the ‘tray of togetherness’ with assorted sweet candies while Mrs. Mak explained the significance of each candy in the New Year—the lotus roots for abundance, lotus seeds for fertility, dried melon seeds for higher earnings, and all other candies for a long-term sweetness of life throughout the year. We also got to taste the different flavors of rice cakes or new year cakes as they call them (we call them tikoy) which are for job promotions or higher grades during the year as rice does grow when cooked.

We returned to Tsim Sha Tsui after the visit to watch the Fireworks Display at the rooftop of Harbour City. According to the South China Morning Post, the display cost HK$3 million which featured more than 23,000 set of fireworks. The estimated crowd of around 210,000 was lower than last year’s 250,000 due to the extreme cold and rainy weather. Nevertheless, the fireworks display was still a spectacular event marking the Year of the Tiger. Everybody had real fun.

The third day of the New Year and the last day of our stay in Hong Kong—February 16. The final event was the New Year Race Day at Shatin Racecourse. The locals believe, especially the horseracing faithful, that it is good luck to start the New Year at the racecourse with a bet on their favorite horse. You bet? Anyway, before the horserace started, they staged this program with invited local celebrities like Ella Koon and Charmaine Sheh, some Hong Kong VIPs, and again, the traditional Lion Dance.

We left Hong Kong in the evening with an unforgettable and wonderful Chinese New Year experience. Despite my being a vegetarian, I found to my pleasant surprise that Hong Kong offers a whole gamut of culinary offerings, thanks to Fred Cheng, HKTB media facilitator. Lip-smacking dumplings and other Chinese dishes are available at Serenade Chinese Restaurant, Heaven on Earth, and at the East Ocean Sea Food Restaurant. For a taste of Thai food, try Café Siam.

Celebrating Chinese New Year in Hong Kong is the next best thing to being amply blessed by the gods. It was such a joy to say Kung Hei Fat Choi!