SUBANG JAYA, Jan 21 – The reunion dinner on the eve of the Chinese New Year is a treasured tradition for Chinese families, and the welcoming of this Rabbit year was not much different form many as they chose to either hold their dinners at home or at a restaurant.
For the Liaw family from Subang, the call was to have an evening away from home and with some simple dishes rather than the traditional cuisines.
“We have been having a home gathering the last thirty years, complete with all the traditional dishes, but this year, we decided to go simple and just come out and have dinner,” Michele Liaw told Weekly Echo, during the reunion dinner with family members, including her husband and children.
“This year, we also have my brother from London and sister from Johor Bahru with us,” she said, adding that it was welcome relief to be out unlike the lockdown period when the new year was celebrated quietly and with caution.
At the Damen, a popular shopping mall in Subang Jaya, Malaysians of various races were also seen out taking full opportunity of the long weekend holiday, either busy shopping or just having dinner with their families amid the festive atmosphere.
Sam from USJ, was also with her family for a reunion dinner at the mall.
Apart from beautiful and colourful decorations with flowers and lanterns befitting the “Spring Festival”, the shopping mall had also placed several Chinese drums complete with drumsticks in their lobby areas, encouraging shoppers to have a go with playing the drums. Sam’s younger siblings were among those seen trying their skills with drum beating.
Many of the shoppers including Malays and Indians also took up the “invitation” enjoying the fun of playing the drums.
Weekly Echo caught with some of them including Amin Suffian, a college student from Perlis, who was in the mall for a dinner with his family and who obliged a request to play the drum a little.
A dashing Amin, who took to the drum like a fish would to water, later said he had learnt to play the drum during his school days. Here is how he played it:
— WE