For the Min family, the only Chinese- Indians based in Tirupur who now lives very much as Indians, the dawn of Chinese New year is still been seen as the moment that provides an opportunity to reminiscence their roots.
The Chinese New year celebrations each time bring fond memories to the family members, spread over three generations, about the traditional rituals followed in China since otherwise the Min family did not celebrate any other Chinese festival.
The Chinese New Year falls on the ‘New Moon’ between January 21and February 20 of the English calendar year and the festivities usually last for a fortnight with each day marked for different types of rituals.
Thus, the Chinese New Year this year began on January 28.
The Min family this time welcomed the dawn of New Year with the bursting of crackers wearing new dresses.Special prayers were performed as per the Chinese tradition with Wenchaswi Min (69), the senior most member in the family, leading the ceremony. Then they distributed sweets to the neighbours and friends.
“Speciality of the feast is that there would only be even numbers of dish. This time, there has been 10 dishes with six being Chinese specialities like Chinese dragon chicken, dried mushroom soup and egg sandwiches as prepared in China”, said Sebastian Leo Shaou Kang Min, another member.
The Min family fled China to India in 1930s following the effect of China-Japan war on that country’s economy.
