If you're a Chinese, you'll definitely know that Chinese New Year will be here in like, 9 days?
If you're not a Chinese, you'll know it now. :D

Like the widely celebrated New Year's Day, Chinese New Year is all about celebrating a new year.
10 Feb 2013, is the start of the lunar calendar this year.

And it lasts for 15 days.


picture Googled

There are twelve zodiacs in the Chinese calendar and the representing zodiac changes each year.

2013, the year of the Snake.



What do we do during the Chinese New Year?

1. Buy new clothes.
It's a custom to get new clothes for the Chinese New Year. One set at the very least. New clothes symbolise a new beginning in a new year.

2. Go visiting.
Visiting relatives and friends is also quite common during the Chinese New Year. Meeting up with old friends and chatting up with those long-time-no-see relatives, quite a good feeling.

3. Receive / give out "angpau"s.
"Angpau"s are red packets or envelopes filled with money. Children tend to receive the most "angpau"s as  they are given out by married couples or the elderly and seniors.

4. Sing a Chinese New Year song.
There are traditional Chinese New Year Songs and of course, modern ones. To be frank, I prefer those traditional ones as they give me more of a Chinese New Year mood.



Above is a Chinese New Year song from this year's Astro cast.
and a traditional Chinese New Year song below.




5. Have a reunion dinner.
Family reunion dinners on Chinese New Year's Eve. Steamboat, oriental food, etc.

6. Firecrackers and fireworks.



7. Open houses.
Why not hold a party and invite everyone?

8. Eat. and eat. and eat.
Food everywhere.
Visiting = eat, open houses = eat.
There are different kinds of pastries and mini appetisers to choose from. People usually gain weight or got sick from having too much after the Chinese New Year ._.

9. Lion dances and dragon dances.
"It is believed that the loud beats of the drum and the deafening sounds of the cymbals together with the face of the dragon or lion dancing aggressively can evict bad or evil spirits." - Wikipedia.org

After some consideration, we finally decided to celebrate the Mid-Autumn festival at the recreational park in Desa Parkcity yesterday. Yes, after some dinner at the Waterfront, of course. (which I'll update sometime later)

The Mid-Autumn Festival, also known as the Mooncake Festival or the Lantern Festival, takes place on 15th day of the eighth month on the lunar calendar.

Here are some of the pictures from last year's Mid-Autumn Festival.





Yes, it should be lanterns or mooncakes instead of candles but after sometime, we get bored and play with the candles.



OK, back to the topic. Mooncakes. It's nearing the Mid-Autumn celebration already. It will be held on 31 September this year. So, you get to see mooncakes and lanterns and stuff on promotion at shopping centers and such.

If you still havn't got your mooncakes, here are some pretty well-known brands. I mean, what's a mooncake festival without mooncake? There are different kinds of mooncake nowadays, not just the traditional baked skin kind. There are snow skin mooncakes, jelly mooncakes, mochi mooncakes, ice-cream mooncakes, chocolate mooncakes, etc. You get the point.

TAI THONG



This here is one of the more famous brand of mooncakes.

GRAND IMPERIAL



ONE WORLD HOTEL



CASAHANA



Mom said that this particular brand is cheap but does not taste real good. :X

OVERSEA



PURPLE CANE



DRAGON-I



THE BAKER'S COTTAGE



LAVENDER



MOCHI SWEETS



Had some of these last year. It was quite a change from the traditional mooncakes. And they were quite good.

MANDARIN ORIENTAL



I've never had these before but why not have a try?

HAAGEN-DAZS



Haagen-Dazs do not just offer ice-cream. Furthermore, they offer ice-cream mooncakes! They weren't too bad but unfortunately, they are expensive so I just managed to get a teensy-weensy slice.

STARBUCKS



Gosh! Seriously? Should try it sometime too.
Couldn't find any mention of it in the company website though. And not really promoting at their FB page.

Q JELLY



Saw this at an event in 1U. Not my type and I've never tried them. You could have some if you want.

And here are some random cartoon mooncakes that I found online.



Doraemon mooncake




Bunny mooncakes



Pig shaped mooncakes



And of course, Angry Bird mooncakes! Cute, huh?

I've never actually been to Petaling Street. Sure, I did pass by but not actually set foot on it. Seriously. I have been staying in Selangor for 16 years and my school is in Kuala Lumpur. How ironic.



As mentioned in the previous post, my aunt and cousins came to visit for the weekend. And here's my ticket to Petaling Street!

"During the Selangor Civil War, the tin mines were abandoned. The neglect during this time caused them to become flooded. When the war was over, and when the miners returned after the war, they found that the mines were now unworkable due to flooding. Yap Ah Loy managed to persuade the miners and coolies to remain in KL and also persuaded the Malays in surrounding districts to grow rice and other garden products. He opened a Tapioca Mill in Petaling Street where the tubers from his farms were brought to be ground into flour. The flour was mainly used to make noodles which took the shape of "pig's intestines" and Petaling Street is still fondly called ‘Chee Cheong Kai’ in Cantonese which means "pig intestine" street." - Wikipedia



We took the LRT service there. Follow the Kelana Jaya line and get off at the Pasar Seni station. Then, ask for directions and walk to Petaling Street. It is just a very short, 10 minutes at most. Well, it took us about 5 minutes?



Anyway, since it was my first time there, I was a little excited and began to wander aimlessly. My cousins and siblings couldn't stand the heat (well, you couldn't expect to find an air-cond on the streets right?) so they went to the nearby shops and managed to cool themselves down.



Petaling Street is quite famous for its imitation goods and stuff. There are bags, purses, shirts, souvenirs, phone accessories, etc. Snacks and drinks are also sold there. Unfortunately for me, they don't sell many Samsung Galaxy W phone covers there. Sad case. I should've got an iPhone or something more common.. Oh well, it's too late to regret.



By the way, we stumbled upon a festival held there. So, there were dragon dances, lion dances and some other performances. We were already on our way back when we saw them pass us. So, we decided to have a quick look.



Turned out that they were just preparing for the performance and the real performance didn't start until we were done with Petaling Street.





Here's one of the few dragons performing that day.



And here's an edited shot of the dragon dance.



Stood under the sign for sometime while my brother bought a mini helicopter. Was bored and therefore the picture of the sign and a banner of our Prime Minister below it.



And a final backward glance at the busy streets..