Nang Chong Stories - Christmas in a Foochow Village

 There were several things I remember about Christmas in a small wooden church in Nang Chong, with Rev Lau Ngo Kee as pastor. It was a good Christmas I spent with my Ngie Mah and my uncles, aunties and cousins. Grandma lived in a big wooden house with two of her married sons, one married daughter, a tenant family and shopkeeper who had a little sundry shop at one end. 

My cousins were particularly happy because the girls had new white dresses to wear which were sewn by my lovely Aunty Yung. I did not have a white dress to wear because I was not singing for the church. I could just go with the dress I brought from home. That was good enough. It was exciting for me to see children of my age singing in the church.

One very sharp memory I had of that day what the cold hardboiled eggs given out to everyone who came to the church. I could not eat mine as it was quite cold. At home we ate only newly boiled and warm eggs. So eating cold hardboiled egg was something new.  We had a cup cake (egg cake) and many sweets. In my simple mind I did not even think of asking for an extra egg to bring home to one of my aunties and uncles. May be it was because I was aware that grandma always had a large basket of eggs in the kitchen!!

But what was really good was the special memory of riding pillion on the tall man's bicycle. When travelling in Nang Chong, we were often taken on a tall bike. So three persons, the older rider and two little ones - three on one bicycle. 

So imagine the scene,,,with me at the back and my cousin was in the front. My older cousin Kiing Chiew rode the bicycle. The others were also on other bicycles while the more able bodied just literally ran all the way to the church, probably about 15 minutes. I remember how good it was to be able to ride at the back of a tall bicycle, and not falling off. It was almost like a limousine ride (*60 years later I still feel it). It was exhilarating. It was good to reach the church without sweating.

My first Christmas in Nang Chong at Sang it Tong, gave me my first experience with a Church Christmas tree. It was decorated very simply by the pastor and his family. I thought it was very nice and indeed  it was admired by all who came to the church. Probably that was the only Christmas tree in the whole village of more than 100 families.

But I also remember for years the crepe paper trimmings the church windows had. The red trimmings made the church very beautiful in the mind of an five year old.

Christmas was exciting. It was an event children looked forward to and actually it lasted only about 2 hours. The eating was very quickly over and then we went home. There were no gifts as rubber tappers and their families then did not have any idea about gift exchange.

I would then for several years remember Christmas was a RED occasion but the girls were all dressed in white . White was the colour of angels. I never asked my mother to make me a white dress, because firstly she could not sew well, and secondly with 5 of us girls in t he family we just could not have 5 white dresses for Christmas, especially after my father passed away. We wore hands me down, and very simple home made clothes. At least we had clothes to wear. Later when my 8th aunt came to live with us, we had nice clothes to wear which gave all of us a lot of confidence. But we actually never complained.

I believe little girls all loved to be angels and wear white dresses.

Like me, my sisters, were always grateful for what clothes we were given. We loved the dresses from Singapore, sent over by our Aunt Phyllis Nguk Sieng. Her little girl June had all those lovely dresses and we wore them gratefully, hands me down....

As the years went by the meaning of Christmas changed.  Christmas means being grateful, being humble, being able to sing praises to God that we were alive, Christmas means sharing with others and loving one and all.

Christmas means remembering to be kind, and to accept strangers to our church.