Monday, January 05, 2009

How do you celebrate Chinese New Year?

When I and my husband first turned vegetarian the people in our extended family were strongly against us vegetarians. Whenever there were gathering they will definitely persuade us to eat meat just for this special occasion. Then there were also the occasional good intentions and gentle reminders about proper nutrients especially for the children.

On such occasions, digging a hole on the ground and stick my head in is not an option. Extreme action like disappearing on an important day such as the first day of Chinese New did crossed my mind. Yes, if they cannot respect your wishes and philosophy, then they do not respect you as a person and do not deserve to be respected by you. Drastic times call for drastic measures. But we do know that in real life it doesn't quite work that way. It would create a wrong impression that vegetarians are anti-social. So what was I thinking?

So the only way is to put on that fakest of the smiles and hold your head high and don't argue or else all relatives will gang up against you. As time goes by they will accept the fact so in the mean time, patience is a good virtue.

Happy Chinese New Year to all!