Happy Lunar New Year 2022; Year of the Tiger - Photographed by Acik Mardhiyanti
First of all, wishing you an awesome Lunar New Year; wishing you the best of luck, health, and career! I am excited to share my happiness at this special event where we spread our happiness by food. Like I have always done that we gave cake or cookies to our neighbors.
I have read and heard that some people have always said that living in Singapore is hard because the neighbors are individual people who won't talk to other neighbors especially foreigners and hard to get along with locals. However, I do not know how to put this, but we do not have that kinda experience. Since the first year we moved to Singapore, we have always met nice and kind neighbors who care about us regardless of race, language, and religion. How did it turn out like that, meanwhile others struggling to adapt? Blending with locals is the key, at least in my opinion. Knowing locals' culture, traditions, food, habit, environment et cetera, all those things are an important part in order to build the relationship with the neighbors. Therefore, we also feel happy to join this festive season, Chinese New Year since I come from mix culture as well.
Lots of orange during Chinese New Year at home - Photographed by Acik Mardhiyanti
Back then before I left my hometown to study, on some occasions, my father's house had always bustled with people. When my father was a successful career man, a week before the festive season, we cooked at least for 60 households. We sent complete meals for neighbors around, relatives, family, and close friends. Each house household received a packet meal that consist of white rice, chicken curry, fried noodles, stir-fried tempeh with tofu, potato, and crackers. This packet meal was enough to provide dinner in each household. So, yeah, we prepared food like we held a wedding party. Close friends and family would get an additional packet a day before the festive season day; it was a bottle of syrup, and cookies or cakes. Besides sending food before the festive season, the death celebration was also one of the special days where we cooked food for at least 60 people and sent them to our neighbors, family, and close friend. Not only that, every happiness we hold such as promotion, birthday, or get bonus annually; we had to share that happiness with others throughout foods or it could be helping others. You can say that it was the environment I had been grown up in. Even when my father lost his decent job and we reduced our habit to send a complete meal, he still shared with others by gardening. My neighbor could pick my father's flowers and sold them in the market. At this point, my father had never asked for every single cent; yes, my father's flower was free. Moreover, my neighbors were also free to get fruits or any edible leaves from my father's garden. Nowadays, my father is no longer alive, the only thing that I can do to keep him alive in my life is to do something that he had taught me; share and spread happiness to others, and be kind to others.
Love letters, lava cheese cake, and oranges - Photographed by Acik Mardhiyanti
In this Lunar New Year 2022, the Year of the Tiger; we gave love letters snacks, lava cheese cake, and two oranges to our neighbors who live on the same floor. But of course, not every neighbor got our packet as we considered some reasons. We sent them last Sunday. Usually, we have sent this packet a week before the festive season, however, we have been busy recently, therefore, we are kinda little late. We bought this cookie and snack at the hypermarket nearby and it is a common snack during Chinese New Year. The price was affordable for us because some of the cookies and snacks are pricey. In general, I would like to buy kue baulu and pineapple tart for our neighbors, but, I think this year I chose distinct cake such as lava cheese cake and love letters. Yeah, I have believed that everyone has pineapple tarts so I gave lava cheese cake. I tried it before sending them and the taste is surprisingly good and we love it. Meanwhile, love letters, the taste is definitely crisp and nice too. In the past in my village, some villagers used to make love letters snacks at home for the festive season. Sometimes I helped them when I got spare time after school. So love letters snack has always reminded me of my hometown. I think many Chine New Year cookies, cakes, and snacks, are the same as in my village. Unfortunately, these special occasion snacks are hard to find these days in my hometown as the new generation wipe them out because they think these traditional cakes and cookies are outdated.
Despite the intention that we refuse to receive a packet, my neighbors were still sending some snacks and cookies even the expensive ones. Actually, we do not want people to pay back what we give to them. But we can not turn down our neighbors' feelings. And this is the thing why I decided to buy common cookies, cakes, or snacks, not the pricey ones because this is not a competition who is wealthier than others. I wish I could prepare food for our neighbors at home just like my father's tradition, however, I think I do not have soo much time to do it.
All those cookies and snacks are coming from our neighbors - Photographed by Acik Mardhiyanti
Maybe some people think that what I have done is just show off or want some payback. But something that they do not know is that I had been taught by my father to share our happiness and spread happiness whether with money (buy something) or not (gardening, sharing knowledge). Furthermore, I can see how nice and genuine my neighbors are. Yeah, I have not written about Christmas 2021 yet when my neighbors ambushed us. What does it mean? It means my neighbors knocked on our door first and gave us cakes before I made a move. It was a few days before Christmas which meant whether we sent Christmas cake or not, it did not matter to them. To be honest, at that time both of us, my husband and I, have been busy and we did not have time to think of Christmas cake to give to our neighbors at all. Like I mentioned before, our experiences are completely different from many foreigners who live in Singapore where some of them do not get along and know their own neighbors who live at least on the same floor or block. Live is lively and soo much easy if we can share our happiness and spread happiness; for me through food, gardening, and pet. Yeah, luckily I love flowers and plants, and also cats and dog (pet).
Happy Lunar New Year 2022 - Photographed by Acik Mardhiyanti
One of my friends said, "I wanted to give you something, but you live abroad and are able to find anything there." Well, I did not give any response about it. Personally, giving something to others is about our gratitude and from our heart, not the value of a "thing" that we want to give it. Once again, this habit is not a competition who are wealthier than others. Believe me, if you set up your mindset that your friend and neighbors are your competitors; instead of building up the relationship, it drowns you into the deep of envy and jealosy. So, keep in mind be kind to others.
Chinese New Year is one of the best ways to strengthen our relationship with our neighbors by sharing happiness through food. We do not need to buy fancy "things" to show our best gratitude because it starts from our heart, not the price. Wishing you a very prosperous and fruitful Lunar New Year, wish the best for all of you.
Note:
- Written by Acik Mardhiyanti
- Photographed by Acik Mardhiyanti
- Do not copy this article without permission
- Do not reuse these photographed anywhere else without permission
