Chinese New Year

Chinese New Year was the most important celebration in our family. It was marked with many traditions.

Months before, my mother would purchase brand new curtain fabrics from Katong Shopping Centre or Arab Street and sew the trimmings herself. We had to get our hair cut and buy new clothes and shoes, including underwear, something that always tickled my children and their friends when I explained these old customs. Sometimes, my mother went as far as getting all of us up early in the morning of January 1 to start repainting the entire house! It was a dreadful thing for any brother-in-law who might be living with us temporarily during that time.