What happened on the first day of CNY

Wel, we were supposed to go visiting, from relative to relative. Every year, we would go to my Grandpa's and Grandma's place as a sign of respect. After they died, we went to my eldest Uncle's place. Even though he has also passed on, my eldest aunt, his wife, is still around and we still go to their place first.

We usually go to other relatives' homes from there. This year, it is a little different. My uncle has passed away for only about half a year and my aunt does not feel right to go visiting. According to Chinese tradition, they are not allowed to go visiting or to give anyone ang paos (red packets) as they still mourning the death of a loved one. They would have to wait for the next year to resume the ang pao-giving.

Since they were not going visiting, my cousins decided to play mahjong to while away time and also, to keep my aunt's mind off memories and stuff. Hehe...they were lacking one player and had asked if I wanted t stay. I gladly agreed and was spared of all the visiting. It is no joke as it can get quite tiring after a whole day of visiting.

For my family, it is also quite interesting in that, even though we have all congregated at my eldest aunt's place and greeted "Happy new year" to one another, we still had to go to each and every individual's family to visit.

What happens is that they would give mandarin oranges (usually 2) to the family we are visiting and in turn, they would return 2 to us. It used to be that my aunts would go into the kitchen and return with 2 different looking mandarin oranges. Now, they just do a rowing sort of acting. I give you the oranges and you immediately give them back to me. Of course, when the oranges are given, auspicious words have to be said to each other. Why mandarin oranges? Coz it looks like big gold coins and that equates to money.

Anyhow, I played mahjong till about 12 midnight on the 7th and won a small some of money. Halfway through, one of my cousins had to leave and I had to call my Dad (who was still visiting) to come take over. Well, he had to come anyway. I needed a lift home. Both of us went home happy.