The first signs of the advent of Chinese New Year

         

Chinese New Year is around the corner, 7 February, which is just 3 weeks away. In Malaysia the first sign of Chinese New Year is when you walk into the shopping malls on 26 December, the day after Christmas and hear the Chinese New Year songs playing in the pipe-in music. It immediately gets you in the mood.

The first place I went was to the flower nursery, to choose the auspicious Chinese New Year plants, before the good ones ran out of stock. Of course it gets cheaper nearing the date but I want the best! You can read all about the plants and the significance in my last blog. I went to my regular nursery in Sungai Buluh, and got myself a dragon pussywillow, which is the latest plant this year. I love this tree because it is alive compared to the standard option which is quite “fake” to me. They made them colourful by soaking the cut stem into coloured liquid, thus the red and yellow pussywillow. I also grabbed the 2 best looking bamboo shoot plant shaped into flower vase. This vase signifies the golden urn where all the prosperity and good luck will be attracted to flow into the urn be kept in. I have to make sure I keep the mouth of the vase open. The next day, I marched back to the next shop to get the must-have plant, the lime plant. The happy colour orange is the colour of gold, thus signifies the tree of gold and prosperity. You can see in the picture the bamboo plant that looks like lotus flower. To quench your curiousity, notice the picture of the sprout growing from the golden egg, it is the lucky egg! You buy the golden egg, chip off the top shell, water it for a few days, and it will sprout. And in anticipation, there will be 4 digit lucky number on the sprout, and for the 4-digit punters out there, they will know what to do!