Tradition of Chinese New Year dinner

USHERING the New Year of the Dragon, the local Chinese community gathered to share the Chinese New Year welcoming dinner.

To find out about the significance of the welcoming dinner, The Brunei Times interviewed celebrants about the festivities.

For Alice Beh, an expatriate from Malaysia who has been living in Kuala Belait for four months, the welcoming dinner is a time where family members meet and catch up to talk about "all the good things".

"We share stories about what's going on with each other," she said, "but it's not just that, we also come together to share significant dishes."

"For the dinner, we serve dishes that generally do not bring bad luck," she explained. "We have fish for wealth, we use seafood to bring happiness and mussels for example."

When asked about the significance of the year of the Dragon, Alice said that the Dragon is part of the Chinese calender that consisted of twelve horoscopes.

"I was born on the (year of the) Dragon," she said, "People who were born in this year are said to be fiery and determined."

Meanwhile, Owner of Maju Fastfood Annie Soon said that the welcoming dinner was about being reunited with her son who is working in Petronas, Malaysia.

"Our family will gather around for the dinner," she said, adding that besides catching up, the family also enjoy karaoke sessions and the children would receive their ang paus (money packets).

Annie, 53, said that the year of the Dragon is a very good year for the Chinese, bringing in good health.

In an interview with Jasmine Voon, 30, she said the welcoming dinner is about serving a lot of food for the family reunion.

The Brunei Times