Cats who teach me to fly…

The picture on top is a stall at Chinatown. In Chinese tradition, red is an auspicious colour. Red symbolises prosperity and good luck. There are 12 Chinese zodiac animals. They are the rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, sheep, monkey, rooster, dog and pig. It is said that each animal will take turns to take charge of  one year. Now is still a tiger year but when it is past midnight on 2nd of Febuary 2011, the rabbit will take charge of the brand new lunar year.

What is in the stall? The stall is selling Chinese New Year decorative items, like 春联(Spring Festival couplets) and many decorative items related to rabbits. As you can see, there are 6 big ” lanterns” hanging on top. Well, those are not lanterns. They are pineapples, used for decorative purposes. Pineapples in Hokkien (a dialect) is called “Ong Lai”. To translate it literally, it is called “wealth come”, meaning bringing wealth to those who hang these pineapples in their shop or house or anywhere. 

For me, I did not hang any pineapples. The pineapples are too huge for my humble flat. The pictures on the left and right which is the front and back of the decorative item is what I bought to hang from my ceiling.  Yeah, baby bunnies:). Mandarin Oranges symbolize luck and wealth and I have a pot of tangerine plant. On the left 福, pronounced as “fu” means “good fortune” and on the right, 春 pronounced as “chun” means “spring”.

I have not done my spring cleaning yet. Looks like I have plenty of things to throw away. CNY is less than 2 weeks from now. I am eagerly looking forward to it.