Chinese New Year - CNY

So this is the second group of new-year festivities I have gone through so far this year (2011). This is the Chinese Lunar New Year, and this year (2011) is the year of the Rabbit. CNY eve started on Wednesday at 12 noon - all schools and Chinese-run businesses close. CNY days were Thursday - Sunday (everything is still closed), and the festivities will continue for two more weeks. So yes, CNY is a pretty big thing over here.

I haven't blobbed for a while, so I'll just share some pictures I took during the past few days.

(Again, the pictures seem to have uploaded in reverse order.)

Below, we have Chi Wei on the left and Wee Boon on the right. On Sunday afternoon/night a group of us from the assembly went out for dinner. At the men's end of the table the conversation topic focused on parachuting (Wee Boon is a commander/parajumper in the military) and the itinerary of the Joo Chiat Gospel Hall Easter conference coming up in April (Wee Boon is checking out the proposed itinerary).

On Saturday, Wee Boon and his wife Jeziral (sounds like Jezreel) had all the young people over for a steam boat lunch and games. I've had steam boats (aka hot pots) in Canada before, but not quite as extravagant as this one. In accordance with the nature of the steam boat, we ate for 2+ hours.
Below, and early picture of the steam boat set-up. The victims of the steam boat include (but are not limited to): lamb, beef, pork, crab, clams, scallops, prawn, fish-balls, beef-balls, pork-balls, chicken balls, lettuce, noodles, among others.
This is Meng Chong. He and I are the people at the assembly who don't have family members around here; therefore, we were invited to a reunion dinner at the Wee's.
Family reunion dinners are usually strictly traditional in that only family members attend - Meng Chong and I were happy that the tradition at the Wee's house had some degree of flexibility. Here we are at a family reunion dinner on CNY eve.
Another note on the reunion dinner: Only sons and unmarried daughters are invited back to the father's house for the reunion dinner. As for the married daughters, they go with their husbands to his father's house for his family reunion dinner. This tradition is very Roman-like, and it is structured parallel to the idea of the Roman patria potestas. I conclude: When in Rome and in Asia, do as the Romans do.