something from chinese new year

finally we closed the chinese new year season for this year!! the festival was celebrated for 2 weeks, the final closing is the Cap Go Meh Festival (Cap Go means 15 in Hokkian, one of the most common chinese dialect using for chinese overseas).

i was bought this when i was in japan. this is a green tea with gold dust..seems it's a good idea.. and a little present for my parents too.. so do you see the small gold envelope ?
that is contained this one:

that is the gold dust.. don't asked me about the carat.. he. he.i think it's like 22 carat.. but mom said it may be about 24 carats.

the tea itself is green tea, just normal one, with the leaves. so i put it a tea spoon full of tea leaves and put the boiling water and wait for a sec, then put the gold a bit.

and if you wondered about the taste.. it taste like .. green tea.. hot green tea.. he.. he.. he.. since the gold dust is tasteless. btw, this was the tea that my mom really care with the rest of the tea leaves. she did not want any gold dust left in the pot!! he.. he.. *kidding*...

and on the day 8, we were having another prayer for chinese new year. it is held by chinese who came from Hokian etnic.

during this prayer, we should have a pair of sugar cane, fresh from the soil. the story behind this prayer (as far as i remembered- sorry if it's not exactly like the right story), long time ago, during hard time in mainland china, there was war in a village. near to end of year, the enemy was attacked the village and all people was ran away with their families and left everything on their home. they were finally arrived near big empty land, without a place to hide themselves from the attackers. so they prayed to God and then suddenly there were thousand sugar cane trees erected from the soil, for they place to hide.

so they hide there, and after few days they came out and when they back to their village (off course they made sure there was no attackers left.. he.. he..) they realized they already missed the new year's eve for about a week. but they still managed the new year's eve prayer but now they add the sugar cane tree as symbol the kind and love from God that already saved their life.

as for chinese, lots of symbol also using too.. btw, on this prayer all are vegies or fruit, no animal contained. the fruits are banana, apple, oranges, chinese pear (Xiang Li), then white bread and sticky rice pastries (nian gao) plus the flowers and for sure a pairs fo sugar canes!!

the white bread are shaped in peach or called shian tao (God's fruit) filled with sweet black bean paste. the next one is made from sticky rice with brown sugar. the white bread symbol of "HUAT" means growing bigger.

and the brown one means harmony..coz it sticky.. it bring the family closer and make a good bonding..;)

we waited until about 2 am or around that then went to sleep..

btw.. i will find out more about the exact story and mean while i am apologize if the story i have here not exactly match with you.