Chinese Christmas past and present

[helen]

Well, its less than 2 weeks to go. Hope everyone's plans are going well. No holiday for me this year, as I went to China in June. Best wishes to everyone.

Let's know how you celebrated your childhood Christmas. Did the Chinese celebrate it as much as the Europeans?

My Mum cooked the lamb and roast for lunch. When I was a child she used to do roast potatoes in chicken fat; as well as kumara and pumpkin.Not forgetting the fresh peas and mint sauce. I well remember the days when Dad had a market garden, and it was our job to shell all the peas for Christmas lunch. we sat on the back door step, filling the collander. And off course it was hard work filling it - especially when it was one pod for me, and 1 for the pot.

If we were lucky Mum made trifle, with custard and cream; as well as pavlova. Mum, being Chinese, obviously didn't know how to cook European food.. so that would have been Dad's influence. But if you think of it, Dad was brought up in a totally Chinese household, so how did he know what was traditional Christmas fare?

ThenChristmas dinner was a mixture of Chinese Roast Duck, Roast Chicken or bak jarm gai (White poached chicken) with ginger and spring onion sauce for dipping; chow mein.

Some time during the day we feast on strawberries, cherries, christmas tarts.

And off course, being in the Pacific, we have a summer Christmas, unlike those of you who will be having a white one.

[helen]

Wishing you all a Merry Christmas and an excellent New Year - From New Zealand to You. I hope you have great family time and fine wine.

[geoff]

Hello everyone,

It's usually a warm to hot Christmas Day here in Sydney, Australia.

We have the traditional Christmas feast twice. For lunch we gather at Dad's side of family, 3 generations together. We each bring some food & presents. The lunch is the traditional roast chic, roast pork, ham, apple sauce, baked potatoes, pumpkin & peas & beans. A slice of fruit cake or plum pudding & custard or both are our dessert. We make sure we don't have extras otherwise we're still full when our 2nd Christmas dinner is eaten about 7pm, on my wife's side of family. We open our presents after the Christmas dinners. As Australia is a christian country, many attend church on Christmas Day. After lunch we chat about what has happened since Christmas Day last year & enjoy the afternoon eating snack food & seeing what the latest technology Santa has bought us this year.

Some have gone away from the traditional foods & eat seafood (prawns,lobster or crab) with salad.

The next day is a public holiday called "Boxing Day" in Australia. It's probably scheduled so that one can recover from the delights & excesses of the day before. On Boxing Day we sleep in & when we get up we eat up the leftovers from the day before.

Many employees have their annual holidays after Christmas. I can't as I work for the subsidiary of an American company which requires its year end accounts soon after New Years Day.

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year to all.


Regards,
Geoff
Sydney, Australia

[douglaslam]

Hi Geoff,

Wow, Christmas feast x 2, that is a big ask even for a big eater like me. As we do not have a Christian tradition in the family, we just go with the flow and enjoy a good feed.

For the last two years and the coming one, we are passively celebrating the big event. Passive because we are getting an invitation to a family friend's place for a BBQ. We do have a Plan B if an invitation was not forthcoming. We then have our own small party with a few guests.

Many of you may not know Winter Solstice falls on Tuesday, 22nd Dec this year. The occasion is right up there with New Year's Day in significance. This is so because China is traditionally an agrarian society. In Hong Kong, Taiwan, and China, the food markets will be abuzz with shoppers buying various ingredients for a feasting and thanksgiving to the deities. We, too, observe Winter Solstice here, and probably eat out on Tuesday evening. Do many of you observe Winter Solstice, or are we the odd ones out? Anyway, it is two big feeds in one week. I am all for it.

Douglas

[chansomvia]

Hi Douglas,

December 22nd is the only day which the English and Chinese Calendar does not move around, my wife will be cooking for our children and and grandchildren tomorrow which is the Chinese Winter solstice. We will be joined by a few other Malaysian Chinese children whose parents are not here, it will be a home-cooked dinner for the immediate and extended family with my wife doing the lion share of the work.

She has sun dried and popped up the fish bladder, cleaned the shark-fin, made the chicken stock, got the brown sugar, coconut cream and sago for our Malaysian dessert "Gula Malacca", and is still hammering away in the kitchen preparing for the meal tomorrow.

There is no religious significance in this meal, it is a meal done with loving care by a matriarch who loves to get her brood together, we treasure our family gatherings. We will be celebrating Xmas too, our Xmas tree is up, with carol singing and church services, and topped up with ham, turkey, salad bowl, xmas pudding and brandy snap, prepared by the younger generation for us. It will be a welcome change from the Chinese/Malaysian food tomorrow.

From my recent trip to China. where we had many opportunities to discuss in depth with our nieces and nephews, they admitted to knowing less than we did on Chinese festivals and other cultural traditions due to the Communist Revolution. A lot of activities were banned and few of them remember the old folk songs, they could not join us in karaoke songs sung by 50's and 60's Chinese singers.

This leads to what our forum was intended for, the older folks lost a lot of the family records, and this forum had helped to unearth quite a lot of the missing links, thanks to the dedicated members who unselfishly shares their time and knowledge.

A Merry Xmas to all.

Joe

[Woodson]

That's 冬至. It is a major event in the Chinese calendar. In our family we don't have a big feast on that day. We usually have 湯丸, rice dumplings in soup. I remember in the village they made a small quantity of dumplings in a sweet liquid, brown sugar and boiled water, for us youngsters.

[helen]

Hi Joe, - Sounds like today will have been a great family time. Now our elders have gone, we need reminders about the dates we should be celebrating. I can't read a Chinese Calendar, and have to rely on others for the prompts. Have a great Holiday everyone.

[Henry]

Dear Colleagues & Friends,

My wife and I will be leaving for Colombia tomorrow for a 2 week visit of my wife's family and email connectivity will be sparse as we will visit some remote locations.

I would like to wish each and everyone a most Merry Christmas and a very safe, healthy, prosperous, Happy New Year.

Happy Holidays,


Henry

[harc3]

Sounds like a great trip Henry

Happy Holidays to you and your family and to everyone on
the boards and their families.

We usually spend Christmas eve and have Christmas dinner with my wife's family. Then Christmas is spent with my family and another Christmas dinner. Boxing day here normally someone has an open house and invites all families to come by as they please to eat, have a drink etc

Best of the holidays everyone!!!

[Ah Gin]

Fellow Heritage Travellers,

I count my blessings especially at this time of the year, when we have time or find time to reflect our past and think about the future.

We are what we are because of our ancestors' sacrifice, so that we can now live in comfort and be able to travel to where ever with little effort. ( Henry, enjoy Colombia and have a good journey.
)

I am sure moving tons of snow is a fun thing to do for Henry and others along the East Coast of the US. Compared to what our grandparents and parents had to do (keeping shops in the outback opened over the holiday seasons, digging for gold, growing vegetables, fruits etc.) , to make a a living then, and under very difficult conditions, I am sure the effort in clearing snow to reveal a big house, is nothing by comparison.

Reading what our members said they usually have for Christmas, or Dong Zi makes my mouth water. We are very fortunate indeed. Even our family and friends now still living in China are also enjoying the fruits of our ancestors. China is a force to be reckoned with, and that is good.

The bunch of Chinese or other Asian names we see in the papers -- high achievers, be that in the field of learning or business (such as our member, Uncle Tan, from Malaysia or our resident geographer, Henry) -- makes us feel proud.

Members of this Forum are exceptionally generous with their time and advice. And we are fortunate to be associate with them.

So all in all, we have much to thank for.

May this Christmas, Dong, New Year or whatever we are celebrating bring all of us good health, happiness and good wealth.

I look forward to 2010 and wonder what other new discoveries or re discoveries we might make, or what else we can delight new members who ask us for advice or help.

God bless (whatever God you might believe in).

From the Southern Island Continent, I wish all of you well.


Regards, Ah Gin

[raymond]

To my esteemed SiYi Forum friends,

This is the time of the year when we take a serious pause and reflect on our past and give hope to the future. Christmas is a family holiday, a time to appreciate what a blessing it is to be who we are today and a time to give thanks for the courage and sacrifices of our ancestors to allow us to be who we are today. It is incumbent upon each of us to seek out the family clan information and fill in the gaps in his/her family genealogy. Good luck to all in your cultural and genealogical pursuits. Happy Holidays!

Raymond

[Administrator]

Thank you, everybody. Wishing you all a Safe and Happy Holidays, more important health and peace!

Thanks again,

Kevin

[douglaslam]

To all my fellow Forum members,

I stumbled on this site in 2006 when I was following the Canadian Prime Minister's apology to the Chinese for the head tax and
Chinese Exclusion Act. It was a very emotional issue for me half a world away. Though I am an Aussie, I could easily have been a Canadian. My grandfather was a head tax payer and shelled out $500 when he landed in Vancouver in 1914. He worked for decades in sawmills doing highly dangerous work to provide for us in China. Not that I don't feel I am not a proud Aussie. Such is destiny.

My PC skill is minimal because my job does not entail computer literacy. I was dragged screaming and kicking to learn the basics, and to type laboriously slow. now, logging on to legacy1.net is my daily routine. I have next to nothing to contribute in genealogy search, but I enjoy the goings on as a spectator sport. Occasionally, I chip in with my ramblings on odd topics which I want to share. I hope you do put up with me.

We are indeed fortunate to have the calibre of membership that we have. The members are highly talented and unselfish. Long may the Forum last.

I do take this opportunity to wish one and all the best of the festive season. Keep warm if you are in Nth. America, and as for Ah Gin, Geoff, Oysterfisher, myself and others, keep cool and drink plenty of water.

Douglas,
Christmas Day 2009

[Ah Gin]

Douglas,

Merry Christmas and a happy New Year to you also. May I pick you up on one point, and that is you say "I have next to nothing to contribute in genealogy search etc." As John Denver's song says: (One Day Diamond etc" goes, "That's not entirely true". I always enjoy your posting -- stirring maybe, but good points to stir us up, recalling the past and not let us forget our roots. "Good on you mate" -- as us fellow Aussies might say to each other.

Yesterday was day two of eating and opening of presents by the grandkids. They spend more time playing with the packaging than the many Made in China toys -- and these are relatively inexpensive but good value, clever toys. On my grape vine just outside the front drive is a multi colour 100 LED christmas light, powered by a tiny solar panel. And the light entertains my grandkids for many hours. All it requires is a few hours of direct sun light to charge. The grandkids are also playing with an electronic toy guitar -- yes it is noisy. And we finished our Christmas dinner yesterday with a Christmas pudding, made by my wife, based on "Nana White's Receipe" -- passed down for generations. The roast pork was to perfection, as indeed was the turkey. She was using her new electronic scale, new mixing machine etc. All Made in China. And last weekend, we hosted a "Street Christmas Party". Neighbours came to share food, drinks and joy with us, kids running around playing Street Cricket, squirting water at each other -- it was a relatively hot day, but not too hot. And I somehow found time to wish our old friends on my mobile phone (some in their late 70s, others into their 90s) -- a merry Christmas. And the cheap phone is "Made in China" A very typical Aussie Christmas scene.

And the points of the last paragraph? It is not so much to talk about the sort of food we had, the new toys or technology we were given, but a reminder that we "new migrants" (e.g. we are not as "old" as Geoff's, with generations of family history) to this Southern Continent Island has indeed intergrated into the "local community", and yes, we have contributed our share in the building of this nation (however small). And our circle of friends is not limited to fellow Chinese, but folks from other background. Our food is a mix of "European" and Chinese. And when we go overseas (e.g. Gold Mountain), the locals there think we speak funny -- as we have a strong Aussie accent. And yes, it is a joy to see so many "Made in China" goods.

As a people, we have come a long way and we have much to thank for.

When we have time, we do what we can in "things Heritage" and we do read some sad stories of the past. Some goverments of the past (and there are still some in this day and age) did treat the Chinese badly. But these Gov also treated the Irish badly, and some treated other "natives" equally badly. It was a time and standard and value of the past. Thankfully the pressure of "Doing the right thing" makes most Gov do the right thing -- some even to the point of saying "We are sorry". Good on them. But I say, "Let's move on".

So there you are, your posting stimulated my old brain cells this morning. Ah, it's Boxing Day. Cricket's on TV. The Sydney to Hobart race will be on soon. Very soon, it will be endless Tennis on the "Made in China" LED TV.

I will indeed have lots of water -- boiled water -- part of my Chinese Heritage -- we still boil our drinking water. And yes, in the kitchen, next to our electric Made-in-China wok, we do have a flask of hot water as well.

Welcome to Summer. Let's hope for rain at the Catchmen. But let's not forget our Heritage.

Regards, Ah Gin

[David Wong]

Hi everyone!

I hadn't been on this forum in ages... but thought I'd visit again, and wish everyone the best of Christmas and looking forward to a joyful and bright New Years.

So many new faces here... :-)

best regards,
David