From red packets to reunion dinners and family gatherings, there are many memories to reminisce about when it comes to the Chinese New Year. With the first few days of the festival behind us, we figured it would be a good time to ask our local celebrities what their favourite Chinese New Year memories are.
LAWRENCE WONG, 31
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"My strongest Chinese New Year memory was when I was a teenager in Malaysia. Every year after our reunion dinner in JB, we would all go out to the road outside my house and play with firecrackers, sparklers and everything. It's just a joy lah, to have my whole family there. And then that was when I saw my mum and my dad — two grown-ups — just giggling and laughing like children."
PAN LINGLING, 49
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"We have a reunion dinner every year, [and there was once] my dad was very, very sick. So that year, our reunion dinner was a bit special. We always have it at the table but my dad couldn't sit up properly, so guess what we did?
"My husband carried him all the way up to the bed to let him lie down. We cooked one pot of steamboat, with soup and rice, and we fed him. That is my favourite [CNY reunion dinner] because you will remember it for [the rest of] your life. Because in that moment, everybody was sitting down on the floor, eating dinner, [and it was] something special. And we were all happy. So nice right?
"And I am also very proud of my husband because he literally carried him from the dining table to the bedroom."
PAIGE CHUA, 38
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"The most memorable CNY memory is the one where I had a very serious case of eczema two years back. It was memorable because everybody was dressed to the nines and I was looking quite terrible. They are my relatives so they won't judge me and they were concerned about how I was going to work but I reassured them that it was nothing serious. It was just those stressful few months of work. But it was definitely memorable because I couldn't dress up, couldn't put makeup on and I looked weird in pictures."
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bryanlim@asiaone.com