How I Spend Chinese New Year Together with My Families

By Grace Myu - February 23, 2018

The view of Penang Bridge.

Every Chinese New Year, for as long as I can remember - I will always travel back to Penang by car with my immediate family from Kuala Lumpur, to visit my grandmother. There are the 5 of us: my parents, me (the eldest child), my younger sister and younger brother. The car can get a little crowded sometimes with the extra luggage (which doesn't fit into the boot) but my parents always made it interesting by playing some games or telling some stories to keep us entertained!


And when in Penang, there is always ONE STOP that we will never miss - the chendul (shaved ice dessert) road stall along Lebuh Keng Kwee. No matter how long the line is, we will queue patiently to get our bowl of chendul each.


The usual queue at Lebuh Keng Kwee, Penang.

This is the iconic bowl of Penang chendul (shaved ice with coconut milk, gula melaka, red beans and pandan jelly).

Enjoying a bowl of Chendul in sunny Penang.


My father is originally from Penang thus this very bowl of chendul is something that he grew up eating every single time he is in the area. So whenever we are in Penang, my father always makes it a point to bring us to eat together. It is relatively cheap (RM2.90 per bowl the last time I checked) and it makes a cool quenching dessert for the sunny Penang island weather.

This is one of the traditions that we upheld up until this day though having the same chendul now is relatively easier as my boyfriend recently opened the franchise outlet in Sunway Velocity!


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Aside from my immediate family, there is also my boyfriend's family to consider. There are 5 of them in the family (father, mother, sister, brother), but if I were to count in with their partners as well, there are the 8 of us! As we live under the same roof, we do things together as a family quite often.

For annual CNY Reunion Dinners, my boyfriend's family will take up most of the seats (other families have an average of 4-5 people). It makes us feel very special like a strong sense of kinship within our family.


My boyfriend's immediate family.

Our family takes up most of the table seatings in one table (seen above).

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Thus Chinese New Year is really a busy period for most Chinese families and it is vital to stay healthy throughout the season (CNY lasts for 15 days!) to enjoy the celebrations. My families (both immediate and boyfriend's) always have medicine on standby, just in case any of us fall sick.


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Happy Chinese New Year and wishing you an abundance of health & wealth for this festive season!

🍊 GONG XI FA CHAI 🍊
新年快乐

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