Chinese New Year celebration

正月初九是天公誕（道教玉皇大帝），对福建人來说，拜天公的仪式比大年除夕更隆重热鬧。檳島福建人居多，你可見到福建人住家都會于當日前夕（初八晚）设壇，一到子时就燒香祭拜天公。
天公金是祭燒品之一，Steve跟我三嫂學摺着… 虽然我们是潮州人，但从我父母时代就融入檳城福建邻里，也是跟着祭拜，但比较简便及以素食为祭食品。

姓周橋多聚居福建人，他们是聚合在橋前设立長壇，擺上各家的祭品…當晚又有舞獅、煙花，所以前來觀看者也不少。

最近几年，檳州政府及各姓氏宗祠都會在新春舉辦文化廟會… 今年呈獻华人傳統12個節慶。有别開生面的陸地龍舟賽！

有一檳城旅遊局要錄影訪问Steve和我，我樂意但他怕上鏡，所以拒絕了。前來觀看廟會者多到擠得我们無法走完全场！

这是我们的節目…我有倆位 'choh dai di' kaki的朋友，约了他们玩了两次的 'choh dai di'，我们只是乘兴玩玩…

The ninth day of the first lunar month is the festival for the Jade Emperor, a Taoist god. It’s a more important festival and celebration than Chinese New Year (CNY) eve for Hokkien (people descended from a particular region of China) people. On Penang Island there are many Hokkien people so you can see Hokkien families setting up tables with offerings on the night before the festival. They wait until midnight to pray.

Taoist ‘joss paper’ is one the of offerings to burn. Steve learned to fold it with my sister-in-law… My family is Teochew (people descended from a particular region of China), but since my parents time we have lived in a neighborhood in Penang where the majority are Hokkien, so my family’s offerings are a simple style with vegetarian food.

Most of the people living at ‘Chew Jetty’ are Hokkien, and they set up a long table to gather their offerings and pray together… That night is also celebrated with a lion dance and fireworks. It attracts many visitors too.

The past few years, there has been a CNY celebration organized by the Penang State Government and the Penang Chinese Clan Council. They highlighted the 12 traditional Chinese festivals as the main theme this year. Here is a special event - a dragon boat race on the ground!

Someone from the Penang tourism council wanted to interview Steve and me; I had no problem but Steve doesn’t like being on camera so he declined. The celebration was so crowded we couldn’t visit all of the events!

This was our event...I have two friends who like to play ‘choh dai di’, we met and had two ‘choh dai di’ sessions with them, we just wanted have fun…