Nang Chong Stories : Calendars

During my childhood, the first day of the new year 2019 was warmly welcome by a hot chicken soup laced with red wine and bowls and bowls of longevity noodles all ready early in the morning. My mother would wake up early to cook the freshly slaughtered chicken and boil the noodles.

Then we would all enjoy tearing off the cover of the new calendar and welcome the first day with a

flourish. 


And interestingly, as we lived in a wooden house, our living room wall would be decorated with calendars hanging from nails. It was the pride of every family then to compete in how many calendars we managed to get from the shops.

Important dates/birthdays were all dog eared by my mother so that she would remember when to buy a chicken for our birthdays or when to ask us to send a chicken to her sisters-in-law or our grandmother Siew. She would never short change her in laws by forgetting their birthdays.

We remember the days when we were her "running legs", or pau tui , running her errands. We would run to the next door to get the longevity noodles from Ah Chuo Pak and Ah Chuo Moo. The couple would always tie their noodles with red threads for good measure. Then on the paper wrapping, they would stick a square piece of red paper.

Today, when everything is digitalized we might not even need a hard copy of calendar. But I still go and buy a Chinese calendar every year for myself, be it desk top or wall hanging version. I need to know my first day and 15th day of each lunar month and mark in red birthdays of dear ones.

Happy New Year.