Preparation For Chinese New Year

Chinese New Year (CNY) is just around the corner. This year, it falls on the 10th of February. CNY is the biggest event in the Chinese Calendar. Chinese celebrate the occasion by catching up with family, relatives, and friends. On such an occasion, there is always plenty to eat, drink and merry making – not unlike the year-end celebrations of the west.

Prior to the new year, it is customary for households to do spring cleaning. The home is given a clean/dust/scrub from top to bottom. Old, and useless stuff are thrown out and replaced with new ones. The idea being to begin the new year on a ‘clean’ slate and to attract positive energy and feng shui to the house.

Cookie baking is another activity seen in most households. In recent years, most of the cookies are commercially made in factories. It is a lot more convenient for those working and for those who do not know how to bake. However, the general opinion is that home-baked cookies are always better. They are fresher, more healthy (less sugar) and it is more meaningful. Family members gather together for some quality time and there is more festivity and atmosphere in the air. One can also pass down the recipe to the next generation.

My sister likes to bake some new year cookies at this time of the year too. Last Saturday, she baked pineapple tarts. This is a favourite with the nephews/nieces and grand nephews/grand nieces.

Pineapple tarts are small bite-size tarts filled, or topped with pineapple jam. Typical shapes are flat, open tart topped with pineapple jam, rolls filled with jam that are open at the ends, and jam-filled spheres or elongated shapes.

Pineapple jam kneaded into balls. These will be stuffed into the pastry.

Pineapple tarts fresh from the oven. They are left to cool before being packed into containers.

Pineapple tarts packed into containers.

Preparation for the Chinese New Year is a tiring affair. It is a lot of work for two days of celebration. Hardly worth the trouble, if you ask me. I will be glad when it is all over.

You can click on the picture for a better view.

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