Ang Pau (Red Packet)

Chinese New Year or Chinese Spring Festival is one of the most important cultural celebration among the Chinese in China or Oversea Chinese especially folks of Han origin. It is also called Lunar New Year owing to its origin whereby this festival begins on the first day of the first lunar year.

Unlike Gregorian calendar which is a cumulative number as time passed, in Chinese lunar calendar or sometimes interchange as Chinese Zodiac, twelve animals are used as symbols in their counting system and they are repeated after a cycle of 60 years. To make up for a complete 60-year rotation, the twelve animals years are also influenced by five elements of metal, wood, water, earth, fire and the concept of yin and yang.

From mythical perspective, Chinese New Year began with the fight against a wild fierced beast called 'Nian' (in Mandarin, 'Nian' also co-incidentally means 'Year') on the first day of lunar calendar. It was believed that 'Nian' would come and destroy livestock, crops and attack villagers especially children. In order to protect themselves, the villagers set up a plan; they placed all the red banners outside their houses, burnt firecrackers to make a loud noise and danced with lion heads. Believe it or not, these plan seemed worked and on the following year, this beast never turn up again.

Nowadays, Chinese New Year or Spring Festival is celebrated at varying degree depending on geographical region. In fact, the celebration of Chinese New Year lasted for 15 days from the 1st day of lunar calendar until the 15th day. In Malaysia whereby Chinese comprises about 30% of Malaysian population, it is observed as national public holidays on 1st and 2nd day of Chinese Lunar calendar. On the Chinese New Year eve, all the family members from far or near will usually be home for a reunion dinner and enjoy sumptuous meals together.

One of the tradition during Chinese New Year is wearing new clothes of red color. It was believed to scare away the evil sprits or bad fortunes. Giving red packet or red envelope ('Hong Bao' in Mandarin or 'Angpow' in Hokkien) to children is also widely practised whereby in these red packets, some cash notes are inserted. The common practice will avoid giving the cash amount in odd number. According to tales, the first red packet was given to a brave orphan boy by an elderly villager when he managed to defeat a dragon-like demon in recognition of this courage for saving the Chang Chieu villagers during Sung Dynasty. Since then, these envelopes are distributed by elderly or married couples as it symbolises courage, good luck and wealth in abundance.

This is an another example of Malaysia's extraordinary other than cultural exchange of the Malay wedding ceremony, which incorporates elements of the Hindu traditions of southern India; the bride and groom dress in gorgeous brocades, sit in state, and feed each other yellow rice with hands painted with henna. Muslims have adapted the Chinese custom of giving little red packets of money (ang pau) at festivals to their own needs; the packets given on Muslim holidays are green and have Arab writing on them.

Melaka Baba Nyonya

Distinctive Cultural Heritage

The origins of Baba Nyonya can be traced back to centuries ago when the Chinese emigrated from China to the British Straits Settlement of Melaka, Singapore, Penang and also Java of Indonesia. The Chinese then married the local females and their distinct background, cultures and customs blended together harmoniously and became baba nyonya in “Peranakan” culture.

“Peranakan” means descendent in Malay. It is another local term for them. “Baba” refers to the male while “nyonya” is female. Beside, they are also being known as “Straits-born Chinese”. This is a very unique culture in Melaka where the Chinese culture is assimilated into Malay customs. During the ancient time, they retained some practices of Chinese cultures but at the same time adapted local Malay traditions in order to minimize the culture shock.

Assimilated into Malay culture, they have several similarities with that culture in terms of dress, food and language. Nyonya is usually wearing sarung or baju kebaya similar to Malay. However, most of them are not Muslim even though they practice Malay traditions. They retained some Chinese customs especially in festival celebrations, marriage, names and ancestral worship.

Mentioning about nyonya food, one will be salivating and food like Kapitan chicken, buah keluak, duck sup, laksa and various mouth-watering sweet delicacies will come to the mind. Adapt both cultures in cooking; nyonya food is made up of pungent and strong-flavored spices from Malay and Chinese style in food preparing. Thus, you might probably find some cuisines similar to Malay food but contain pork.

They speak in a form of “assimilated language” consisting of Baba Malay, Malay Patoi and Hokkien dialect. Thus, you might be surprised by the way they speak in a mixture of Malay language, Hokkien dialect and probably some unfamiliar terms for you. It is said that their language is a blend of Chinese, Malay and Eurasian culture because European like Dutch was influential when they dominated Melaka last time. Their languages itself is amazing enough in telling you how one culture can assimilated into another and create another novel and unique culture.