Keeping Traditions Alive

I come from a Dutch-oriented Chinese family, so we don't really celebrate the Chinese holidays like most Chinese do. We do keep one Chinese tradition though, the Chinese New Year.

Hey, isn't this is a surprise! I didn't excpect to even get one this year.
  

Even so, we only celebrate it for the sake of keeping some Chinese traits in our family alive. We're not that anxious about it. For example, during the Chinese New Year, most married couples will hand out Ang Pao (gift money) to relatives, especially the young ones. Usually they will concentrate their savings for this particular celebration. Hence the amount of money given can be ridiculously high for some wealthy families.

In our family, however, the Ang Pao envelope is just a formality. The amount put in is never that much to be considered serious, sometimes we even forget the Ang Pao altogether. The celebration lies mostly in the family gathering. We just like the act of giving and receiving and getting together again. Kind of like Christmas, but less solemn (and less hassle, lol).

Anyway, Happy Lunar New Year!

Gong Xi Fat Cai

Xi Nian Kuai Le

 (whatever that means xD)