Chap Goh Meh
A fascinating Chap Goh Meh legend tells the story of a lonely young man who,
during an outing on this very significant night, was suddenly enraptured by the
most beautiful sight he ever laid eyes on. Who was this exquisitely delicate
beauty driving by in all her finery, he wondered. Despite the excitement
pounding in his heart, the hopeful young gentleman quickly jotted down the
number of her car, lest he forgot. The very next day, he made enquiries as to
who the car belonged to, and finally obtained the car owner's address.
With great haste, he requested his mother to send a matchmaker to his dream
girl's home to arrange the marriage. In his rush, the star-crossed optimist did
not realise that the girl he had seen was not the daughter of the house but a
visiting niece. And so on his wedding day, the poor groom found that instead of
the radiant smiling girl he had expected, he was married to her fat and rather
plain cousin.
The story does have a rather happy ending though, as his wife was a wealthy
woman! Chap Goh Meh goes by a few names. In Mandarin it is called Yuan Xiao, but
in the traditional Hokkien dialect of Penang, Chap Goh Meh means the 15th night
of Chinese New Year. It is celebrated with prayers and offerings to mark the end
of the Chinese New Year. During this auspicious occasion, houses are brightly
decorated with lights and lanterns are hung over the balcony or five-foot ways
for the last day of the Chinese New Year. Prayers to the ancestors are offered.
Despite a ban, firecrackers are lit as a 'send-off' to the new year. The next
day, people go back to work, businesses operate as usual and everyone is looking
forward to the next Chinese New Year.
Various activities are planned to mark this very traditional occasion but the
two mainstays are the Dondang Sayang and orange/tangerine throwing ceremony. In
the morning, nyonya households will distribute pengat, a sweet and rich broth of
tubers and bananas to relatives and friends. As evening falls, the atmosphere
relaxes as the gentle strains of Dondang Sayang fill the air. Dondang Sayang,
literally meaning lullaby of love, is an interplay of sung poetry, usually
revolving around the theme of love, between a man and a woman, each trying to
outwit the other in the name of affection whilst traditional music plays in the
background.
In the past, Chap Goh Meh was one of the few occasions where eligible young
ladies, transformed into scorching beauties, were allowed out from the confines
of their homes.
Eager gentlemen could only admire longingly at all the passing beauties, as the
lovely ladies were always accompanied by an entourage of the fiercest looking
aunts and amahs (servants)! These young maidens (and spinsters) would throw
oranges into the sea as a gesture of hope to wed good husbands. To keep this
quaint tradition alive in modern times, orange throwing has transmogrified into
a competition of sorts, where oranges thrown into the sea by girls (single or
otherwise) would be scooped up by boys in boats. The boat with most oranges
would be declared the winner.
undo Malaysian Festivals