The Star Online > Features
Thursday April 22, 2004
Passing on traditions
By CHAN LILIAN

ONE humble egg can evoke many warm memories. Whether it is the fragrant bunga telor which the Malays give to their wedding guests, the colourful Easter egg which signifies a new life or the traditional Chinese red egg that symbolises good luck, the story behind each of them ought to be treasured and passed on to the next generation.

As a child, red eggs were the only food item offered to me on birthdays. Those red eggs were bland, boring and stained my fingers. But my mother never failed to prepare red eggs on every birthday. My two older children who were under her care did not escape the mandatory red eggs on their birthdays.

The eggs bore little significance for me until my mother passed away. That year, my second son celebrated his fourth birthday and the absence of the red eggs was greatly felt. From there, I learnt the importance of tradition – that it is worth preserving because it weaves the memories of our past and blankets us with a sense of belonging and security in the present.

I then decided to instil tradition as part of my children’s upbringing. Though this sounds easy, it involves a lot of patience, some creative storytelling and a great sense of pride. You cannot perform a ritual without making it significant and memorable for the children.

While getting my fingers and palms all stained with the red food dye, I would recall the number of times my children had eaten the red eggs prepared by grandma.

Sadly, this Chinese tradition is dying out. If you ask a group of children to draw pictures of a birthday party, not many will include the red eggs. Instead, you will probably see pizzas, chicken nuggets and other food items that are alien to Chinese culture. It leaves a vaccum in our children’s childhood if there is nothing left for them to relate to the next generation.

When my children invite their school friends for a birthday party at home, the young guests have to eat or take back one mandatory red egg. One day, I hope my children’s friends will remember a certain aunty who forced them to eat red eggs or take one home during her sons’ birthday parties.