Sending Chinese New Year gifts to relatives (送禮)

Hello everybody! Chinese New Year(Lunar New Year) is just around the corner (about a week to go…). I definitely guarantee you guys’ (the chinese most probably) parents are busying in cleaning up house (spring cleaning) and sending Chinese New Year gifts to relatives. Well, my parents also not excluded from doing these things. So, did you all know about that sending gifts before or during Chinese New Year to relatives (送禮) especially the older ones is the customs of the Chinese always practicing since a long time ago. I do also lend a helping hand to my parents in sending the gifts to relatives in order to gain some experience and share with you guys in my blogger (Life is a journey.).

Let’s begin. On Sunday (31th January 2016), my parents and I woke up in the early morning in order to buy some hampers as a gift to my relatives (as a saying goes: “early bird gets the worm”, haha). After buying and preparing the gifts we were heading towards Banting, Selangor (my mother hometown). In general, Banting is a small town that located at Kuala Langat District (It size just slightly bigger than others small towns in that district like Jenjarom, Telok Panglima Garang…). Due to it is a small town, every things are much more cheap than the Klang Valley. For example, we had a lunch at a restaurant in Banting was slightly cheaper than the restaurant in Klang Valley. Back to the topic, we went to grandmother’s house after having lunch. We send a hamper (inside the hamper had some tonic materials…) and some snacks to her (In fact, my grandmother actually loves to eat snacks. Lol, isn’t cool?) Ok let’s get to know a bit fact of my grandmother. My grandmother is a florist. She did this job since she was very young to aid her family to get rid from poverty (at that time, many people were poor as hell…). She is also a responsible mother as she kept selling flowers in order to obtain money so that she could raise up her children.

Banting town

 Later, we and my grandmother heading towards my aunt’s shop lot (at Jalan Sultan Abdul Samad, Banting which just a stone’s throw away from my grandmother’s house). My aunt (my mother sister) and her husband owned a small business in Banting. There are most probably selling fruits.  She gave us some fruits to taste like Banana and Mandarin Oranges. After tasting fruits, I could say that the fruits are very delicious and fresh just like directly coming from the orchard. We chit chatting a while before we going to Klang (some of my mother’s relatives living there…).

My aunt's shop lot

A carpenter in front of the shop lot...

We were heading to Klang in the hot scotching evening in order to continue our ‘job’. Now we were going to another aunt (she is my mother’s aunt)’s house. We gifted to her a hamper (same as we gifted to grandmother) and plum flowers (梅花, in Mandarin Chinese). After finishing decorating the plum flowers in her house, my uncle (also that aunt’s son) treating us Bak Kut Teh (a dish which is very famous in Klang). Bak Kut Teh is a dish that pork meat immersed into a soup filled with tea and herbal. You can also garnish its soup onto your rice and enjoy its meat… (Sorry for those who are Muslim, I didn’t mean to offend you guys…). But it’s okay, there is still has a type of ‘halal style bak kut teh’ (known as chi kut teh’) which does not have any porks or non-halal items inside it. Then, we again went to my aunt’s house and my mother again chit chatting with them… (Most probably your mothers will chit chatting longer when they saw their siblings or relatives…).  Around 8 o’clock and a half, we went back to home (story finished… hahaha).

My uncle treated us Bak Kut Teh in this restaurant (Samy & Min Bak Kut Teh).

Picture Source: http://keehuachee.blogspot.my/2015/08/bak-kut-teh-in-klang-with-jacky-chern.html

In the end, I can conclude that it was my first time experience in gifting the gifts to my relatives. This certainly can foster the relationship with them. Although it was damn tiring, but it was also still a great ‘accomplishment’ as I could eat a lot Bak Kut Teh as I could. Haha! 

    Ok, that's all I want to talk about. If you have an experience in sending chinese new year gift to your relatives (in Mandarin Chinese, 送禮),  please tell me in the comment below hope you enjoy this article and please follow me on my Google + account, twitter (@JiaZhe1) and facebook (username: Jia Zhe Wong)... Thank you, bye!

Oh ya... Don't forget to watch this Chinese New Year Medley sang by Chinese and Malays guys.  

Happy new year! 新年快樂！GONG XI FA CAI! 恭喜發財！