Cecilia Koh

Spring cleaning for the Chinese New Year



Posted: Thursday, April 19, 2007

by
http://www.Babiesconsult.com

For the vast majority of Chinese people, spring starts on the first day of the Chinese lunar calendar which could be in January or February. The first day of spring is a big holiday called the Chinese New Year and the festivities last 15 days. It is important that the whole house must be thoroughly cleaned so that good luck will be able to come into the house during the New Year therefore spring cleaning starts about a month before.

When I was a young girl, I remember it takes about 4 weekends to clean the house and most of the cleaning was done by the women folk as the men were out earning the family income. In those days, it was common practice for the patriarch to have all the sons, their wives and children living in the same house. My grandparents had 11 children so you can imagine the number of people living in the house. I forgot to mention that daughters leave the house once they marry so the numbers does not increase that much unless there are lots of grandchildren.

The first weekend is to remove the dust and cobwebs from the ceilings and walls of every room, hall, kitchen and toilets. Traditionally, the ceiling must be brushed with bamboo leaves to remove the cobwebs and any bad luck. This is followed by washing the walls and the floors.

The second weekend is spent painting the house which includes the internal, external walls, window frames and doors. The children get to paint the grill gate and any other metal fittings. I always end up having to paint a mural on the side wall next to the main door entrance so every year I choose a different theme.

The third weekend is spent washing all the cupboards, crockery, cutlery, pots and pans. With the large number of people living in the house you can imagine the amount of washing we have to do. Then it is washing tins and cookie jars in preparation for the marathon baking the following weekend.

The fourth weekend is to replace all the curtains and drapes. Luckily, these are only in the eight bedrooms so the work is quite light. Once this is done, the baking of biscuits and cookies gets underway, with my grandma supervising us to make sure that we do not burn them.

After the big reunion dinner on New Year’s Eve, the floors are given a quick wash which must be completed before midnight because we are not allowed to sweep or wash the floor for the next five days otherwise we will sweep out bad luck.

Nowadays, we do not have extended families living within the same house so although we do spring clean our houses for the New Year it is not the same. It is impossible to find bamboo leaves to clean the cobwebs so we make do with the vacuum cleaner. The house gets a lick of paint only if necessary. It is very expensive to replace curtains every year so the curtains are washed in the washing machine and hung straight away. Most of us do not have time to bake biscuits or cookies so this is purchased from the market or from anyone selling them. Looking back, I must say that those were wonderful days and the feeling of togetherness can never come back with our modern way of living.

Cecilia Koh is a British trained nurse/midwife with over 30 years working experience. She operates a child care centre for children aged 1 month to 2 years.
 
http://www.Babiesconsult.com
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