NEW START FOR A NEW YEAR!

INTERESTING START TO 2014

Fireworks on the Thames

Fireworks around the world welcomed in 2014 with a panacea of beautiful design and vibrant colours, lighting up the world's skies with sparkles and brilliance.  We wish each of you good fortune and better health in the NEW YEAR.  May you all find prosperity, happiness and goodwill, wherever you live, whatever your work or occupation.




To all our family and friends, here and around the world, Roy and Jean wish you
Gong Xi Fa Cai - A very Happy and Productive Lunar Year of the HORSE.

May you find strength, energy and willpower, as symbolized by the year of the Horse, starting from Friday 31st January!

Jean and Roy at home remembering old friends

This is our first photograph taken at home this year, with the Tang Horse given to us ten years ago by Gerry Fok, before he passed away. Sadly, we attended his wife, Margaret's funeral on Wednesday, 15th January who, aged 92, had lived a very full and eventful life, surrounded by children and grandchildren, and lots of friends young and old.  We have many good memories of both of them, in the U.K., in Malaysia, Hong Kong, China and India, their parents knew our grandparents long before we were born, and we grieve for them like family.

Growing up in India, we celebrated a variety of Hindu and Muslim festivals, as well as Christmas and the New Year.  We enjoyed unwrapping our man-made tree, that was stowed away for eleven months, and bringing it back to life each December, with baubles, tinsels and blinking lights.

Our shop, 'Golden Arts and Crafts', in Calcutta's shopping centre, was really busy for the Christmas trade, and so was nearby New Market, a huge building with shops selling practically everything from clothing to jewellery, flowers to stationery, books and magazines, haberdashery, sewing machines, fabrics for dress or home furnishing, lavishly tiered wedding cakes down to basic bread, biscuits and confectionery, dried fruits and nuts, spices and all ingredients of condiments.

There was a separate section for raw food, fresh vegetables and fruits, live poultry or butchered meats, with all kinds of noise and animal sounds that muffled any haggling or bargaining, a great place to lose oneself for few blissful hours. Frenzied shopping didn't just stop on Christmas or Boxing Day, but continued until New Year's Eve, slowing down at around 5 to 6 P.M. with last minute purchases being wrapped in haste, as shop assistants hurried home to prepare for the partying, to bring in the New Year.

Calcutta was indeed a good place parties, held in each other's homes.  It was a melting pot of ex-pat Brits, Chinese, Southeast Asians, Europeans, Australasians, Armenians, Anglo-Indians and also Hindus, Muslims, and many travellers, missionaries, stragglers from the wars and many stateless individuals, disillusioned with their own country of birth, like my father and many of his friends, who preferred to live in India.  Musical films, classical, folk and pop music were great levellers for such a mixed community, who enjoyed the hospitality of this cosmopolitan city, where theatres, dramas and all cultural activities abound, embraced and perpetuated by all who lived there.

Dance inspired by Lion statue

In 1940s and mid '50s there was quite a large contingent of overseas Chinese living in Calcutta, and Chinese New Year was celebrated with Cantonese and Peking Operas staged over three evenings, some of the face-painted imagery of warlords and angry gods haunted my dreams well into my teens.

I much preferred the Lion or Dragon Dance, whose drummers rehearsed every evening for several weeks before the three-day celebration. New Year's Day started early for them as they strenuously danced their way from one shop to another in Chinatown, their rhythmic drumbeat boomed into our hearts, as we excitedly skipped along with the crowd, straining to see the lion's head lowered to lick its tail, or suddenly be surprised by the head lifted high above you with eyes twinkling or glaring momentarily, whilst every intricate step is skillfully complemented by the tail-bearing dancer.

Our Chinese grocery shop heartily welcomed the Lion Dance every year, and in return for the good wishes bestowed on us, a red envelope of lucky money would be tied to the top of a pole on the first floor, for the Lion to reach up to harvest their reward, entertaining all young and old, whose smiles and claps of appreciation added to the joys of New Year.   As the dancers moved to depart, Uncle Poon would light firecrackers at the shop entrance to drive away evil, as the Lion danced around the fireworks, bowing their thanks and retreating their steps to a final fanfare of drums, on their way out to their next assignment.

Beside manufacturing soya and chili sauces, our staff would have spent many months, preparing air-dried specialty ducks and pork sausages for the holiday demands, stocking up on dried mushrooms and other ingredients required for Chinese food, ready for the busy Chinese restaurants and a large community celebrating the Lunar New Year.  On New Year's Eve everyone stopped work at 5 p m. to sit down for an early End-of-Year dinner, when my father would hand out red packets of bonus with good wishes of long life and prosperity, and a well-earned three days' rest.

Drum and cymbals played for lion dance

It was customary to spring-clean our homes, settle any outstanding debts and resolve any differences before sitting down with all family members for the lavish Year-End dinner.  On New Year day, we ate chai, a Buddhist vegetarian meal like those served in ancient monastery, minimising work for the kitchen.  Unlike Christmas, we didn't get presents, but each had new clothes, which we put on to visit the older generations, such as aunts, uncles and Khaimah, my brother's godmother, bearing fruit like oranges and confectionery to wish them good health and prosperity.  We were treated to special nine-layered cake and lotus-filled dumplings, and given Lixi, little red packets of 'good luck' money, which we looked forward to every year, to add to our little stash of savings, our only form of pocket money.

Lion Dance encountered in Malaysia

On the second day of New Year, newlyweds would visit their in-laws and extended families, exchanging fruits and confectionery, and giving red packets of 'Lucky' money to children and anyone else not yet married.  On the third day, friends and distant relatives would visit each other for friendship and goodwill. This is probably why, in China, millions of people travelled long distances to get home for the New Year, as many old Chinese customs survived even the Cultural Revolution, and the only restraint on family reunions would be due to economic situations, extreme poverty or an exceptional sense of duty to their jobs or responsibility.

During our years of travel, Roy and I had come across the Chinese Lion Dance in many countries, including Argentina, the colours, costumes and passion of each troupe had fascinated us, intriguing to find such culture had spread worldwide and the recognisable drum-beat so well practised and passed on to younger generations.  We love the Lion Dance footwork and always stop to watch it wherever we come across them.

Enjoy the New Year celebration!  I will be in touch again in a few weeks' time.