HATE POST FOR CHINESE NEW YEAR.
I hate it and it's okay if you don't.

I swear I enjoyed myself a lot when my mom's friends and their children (which are my friends) came over to celebrate. Card games, singing, food.

Maybe I wouldn't have time to think of all these if I spent most of my time visiting, having fun. But I don't have to visit.

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Now what is a festival, is it defined by the things we do? It really isn't much of the meaning behind it anymore, is it?

We might as well give red packets to people when we're feeling kind, not because we have to follow a tradition many don't understand the point of. We might as well bake tarts and cookies and share it with others when we really want to.

Cook the food whenever you want to eat it then. My dad says it's the memories attached to it that makes it special.. okay, takes away a little hate for it.

If it's a chance for relatives to meet up, we might as well really PLAN a family gathering, hold it on a saturday or sunday where people have to make an effort to turn up because it's for the family? Do people think about traditions anymore? Isn't it just another public holiday for working adults, convenient for family dinners?

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Bai nian?

You have to say the same old four-word phrases that existed for thousands of years to adults before getting your ang pao, so meaningless. Not like you know them well or anything, and all you ever get is "zhu ni xue ye jin bu".

Then you exchange the "hehh we have nothing much to say, just that the job is for me to receive the money and you (the adult) to give it to me. That's all."

I don't mind not having the money if I didn't have to do it, but I don't have a choice to not take it anyway.

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People visit relatives we wouldn't even talk to if not for this festival, I honestly don't get the point in doing so.

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紅包s are supposed to ward off bad luck but honestly, the main point to everyone now is the money and not the purpose of it.

Might as well call it a festival of money falling from the sky, excuses for adults and kids to eat till they gain a kilogram more, and chances for shops/producers to reap profits?

I think it's stupid for adults to spend on presents (unhealthy food) and give it to each other, it's not even something we need. All a whole bunch of traditions where not a lot of people appreciate or understand anymore. What's the point of celebrating such festivals when the meaning is lost?

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I don't HATE all the things we do during Chinese new year, because who the hell doesn't enjoy food, money trees, overnight games and such? I just hate how it's a bloody festival where we're just going through the motions.

It's not like we don't KNOW the meaning behind these things, but do we really THINK about them as we do it? No, because we're more or less "forced" to because it's RUDE not to follow these traditions (this generation doesn't care much about).