It was a long weekend of Chinese New Year celebratory feasts and dining in big groups that we have not had for a long time thanks to Covid.
The last time we had our usual annual CNY family gatherings was in Jan/Feb 2020 just before we went into lockdown hibernation for more than 2 years. Celebrations over Zoom became the norm as caps were placed on group gatherings. It was 2, then 3 or 5 meaning that extended families could not meet in one physical location.
This year was different. Everyone went out of their way to organize big family and friends meetups, posting group photos on social media without the fear of worrying about getting caught by the Covid police.
For me, the feasting started a week earlier with the extended family reunion dinner on 14 Jan. There was a total of 27 of us. Over the last 2 years, there were new additions to this – a new husband for my niece and a 3-month-old baby from another. My mum and dad as great-grandparents for the 3rd time were beaming with pride at this clan gathering over wine and CNY food with the required Loh Hei at the start. This group photo will be memorable. It will be the one that symbolizes that we finally declared that we are out of the pandemic for good.
The dining continued into 20 Jan, Fri for my wife’s side of the family for the next early reunion dinner. We had a steamboat meal with plenty of wine and sake to lubricate our throats. It was a mini-potluck too and there was a variety of dishes to choose from.
21st Jan (Sat) was the actual day for the reunion dinner as it was the eve of CNY. Both my parents and my in-laws joined my family for a home-cooked dinner as we kick-started the festivities into the next few days of gorging ourselves with CNY goodies and titbits.
On 22nd Jan (Sun), the first day of CNY traditionally meant many home visitations to pay respect to our elders. All of us eagerly looked forward to meeting them in person again. Masks were optional but most don’t really think about using them since there will already be multiple face-to-face interactions throughout the day. Some of the more vulnerable elderly wore masks as an extra precautionary measure.
We had a sumptuous lunch cooked by my mother-in-law before embarking on more visits and heading home to prepare for the big family party at our home that night. The partying ended around 1 am after a lot of wine, whisky and gin cocktails that were consumed together with the buffet food that was ordered.
The next morning, on the 2nd day of CNY, we took it easy and set off only in the late morning. That afternoon was at my parent’s place before a visit to my niece’s new home. Dinner was another Loh Hei followed by meals bought from various places like KFC, sushi and zhichar dishes.
On the final day of the CNY holiday (3rd day, Tue), we had a long lunch at my wife’s aunty’s home. Again, lots of food plus wine to go with it. It was non-stop feasting from Friday till Tuesday and seeing big groups of people while making merry and drinking. Tonight will be a dinner gathering of old friends who were university mates many moons ago.
It is indeed refreshing to have a normal CNY festive celebration after more than 2 years of being in a limbo twilight zone situation. All our old reference points pre-2020 are not relevant anymore. We just have to look forward to charting what a new normal will be like in the future.
I do not think there is a risk of going back to a pandemic again. But then we had SARS (6 mths), MERS (6 months) and COVID (2+ years) within a span of 17 years. Let’s hope that we have developed the tools to react faster to these problems and that the response time will be much faster now. Cheers to that!!!
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