Firstly, I would like to wish all readers and visitors of Zoom2see.com a very Happy Chinese New Year! May the coming year be blessed with prosperity and happiness for all of you!
The Chinese language Guang Ming Daily office on Macalister Road, Penang was buzzing with activities last Saturday with an event to usher in the 2010 Chinese New Year. The event celebrating the upcoming year of the tiger was a perfect blend with Chinese cultures and traditions.
The Gods of Wealth, Prosperity & Longevity greeting the crowd!
The event saw a huge turnout despite the rain earlier, with swarms of people walking around and enjoying the festivities available! Visitors can even purchase auspicious flowers and plants related with the Chinese New Year from the stall with an abundance of choices.
Beautiful flower plants great for decoration!
As usual, this event was complete with food - a wonderful spread of traditional Hakka dishes and snacks. It was great getting to taste all those yummy food which is hardly found any other time of the year around town!
The Hakkas usually have this Thunder Tea Rice (Lui Cha Fun) at the seventh day of Chinese New Year which usually makes up of seven side accompaniments. The rice is served with tea which is made of a ground paste of several vegetables, tea leaves and herbs. This healthy rice dish is simply satisfying with the toasted peanuts.
The simple dish of Thunder Tea Rice!
A favorite dish for many is the Abacus Beads (Suan Pan Ji) which is made of mashed yam. It may look simple but this stir-fried dish was indeed appetizing!
The delicious Abacus Beads!
Plenty of snacks to sample as well, and I even forgot to catch the names of the buns that came with different filings and colors! Some have shredded turnip and shrimp. Delicious nevertheless!
The event was brightened up with the stage performance featuring a wide variety of music, dance, and choir performances.
The Chinese Orchestra strutting their moves, and performing beautifully!
In addition to that, I was further impressed with the displayed of paintings by an artist from China. The displayed paintings were of the tiger.
The artist in the middle of completing his masterpiece…
A magnificent piece of painting!
Visitors could see the row of ‘colorful lions’ displayed along the whole of Lorong Susu and also many different art and crafts.
Those cute shoes really caught my attention, and the lions waiting in-line for the performance!
Traditions ensued and we had the writings on the tangerines. In general, tangerines symbolize wealth and good luck. Many visitors have their hands-on on the making of tang yuen and some putting in their skill in the mahjong game.
Many took the opportunity of “writing on the stone”, in a wish for a great Year of the Tiger 2010!
To top it all off, there was a long table laden with an altar and plenty of food for the praying ceremony. Among them was the roast pig, mee koo, crabs, ang koo, fruits, eggs and many more.
It really was a great evening of fun which brought a large group of people and cultures together!. A big thanks to Lee Choo from Guang Ming for calling me up and informing me about this great event!
Anyway, I would like to take this opportunity to wish every one HAPPY CHINESE NEW YEAR! May the Year of the Tiger bring you the best life has to offer. Cheers!
GONG XI FA CAI!
