Today we had the fun Lo Hei celebrations in the office!
Lo Hei is a cute Singaporean custom where you make a huge salad of sorts in a group, as part of the Chinese New Year celebrations. It is to mark the coming together of a group (be it family or work or friends) during this auspicious time of the year to wish themselves and each other a good year ahead.
The ingredients of the Lo Hei are to be added in a particular order and as you add in each ingredient to the mix, you shout out wish designated to that ingredient! So for example as you add lime in, you call out for "good luck and smooth sailing", as you add in pepper you call out for "attracting wealth and treasures" etc.
Once the ingredients are put in, you mix it all together - the mixing is a group effort with chopsticks, mind you - wishing for even more things, this time none of the predesigned wish list but anything that comes to your mind. In our group it happened to be things like project approvals, more budget, promotions etc.! Interestingly, as you mix the salad and make your wishes, you are to raise the food up as high as possible with your chopsticks. When about 15 people madly poke at a salad with their chopsticks, grab it, lift it up and shout out wishes in maniac excitement, food start to fly about. It's inevitable, really.
Soon we were not just mixing the salad but also avoiding the food darts whizzing past. After mixing, wishing, and getting a few bits of salad on the hair and even in the eye in some cases, we settled down to eat whatever was remaining of it in the bowl. And it was yummy, which of course was awesome!
I always enjoy doing Lo Hei and for some reason didn't get a chance the last couple of years. So had huge fun today!
197 more to go.
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