Chinese New Year is coming soon. However, celebrations are likely to be muted due to the Movement Control Order (MCO) over most of the country. This means no travelling back to the home town or for the annual family holiday during Chinese New Year. It doesn’t mean that Chinese New Year is ruined. We just need to make some changes to our usual celebrations. Here’s how you can still have a festive Chinese New Year despite movement restrictions.



Create a festive mood

As we are not able to go out and enjoy the festive decorations at malls around the country, it will fall to us to create a festive mood for ourselves. Decorating doesn’t have to be expensive. You can get lots of inexpensive items online, especially from Taobao, Shopee and Lazada. Buy festive plants such as kumquats, kalanchoe and lucky bamboos to usher in prosperity. You can buy them on Shopee and Lazada if you don’t have a plant nursery near you.

You may also spend time as a family making Chinese New Year decorations. Recycled angpow packets can be made into colourful lanterns, fish, and fans that can be used to decorate the house. There are now many tutorials on DIY decorations available online. Look them up with your family, and decide on the decorations you want to make together.

Also, get into the festive mood by dressing up. Don’t spend Chinese New Year in your pyjamas just because you won’t be attending gatherings. Research has shown that what we wear and the symbolic meaning associated with specific clothes, has measurable effects on our mental state. For example, researchers found when people wore lab coats, associated with intelligence and scientific thinking, they performed tasks better.1

So dress up in festive clothes to give yourself and your family a mood boost. You may want to keep it simple with a prosperous red colour scheme, or go all out and purchase matching traditional attire for the whole family. Check out Taobao, Shopee and Lazada, or your favourite clothing retailer for deals on festive clothes.

You will be able to save even more on your festive shopping with RHB’s Big Deals. Earn instant rebates of up to RM18 when you shop on Taobao on Thursdays, Shopee on Fridays and Lazada on Sundays with your RHB Credit Card/-i*. You also stand a chance to get 100% Cash Back on online purchases from any online shop when you use your RHB Credit Card/-i for online spending from 1 January 2021 to 31 March 2021.*

You can also make the festive season more meaningful by buying local with RHB’s #JomSapot campaign. Every online or on-ground purchase you make with your RHB Credit Card/-i, or Debit Card/-i, or RHB DuitNow QR will help Malaysian SMEs stay in business so that our fellow Malaysians can keep their jobs and our economy can recover. You also stand a chance to get RM700 Cash Back on your #Jomsapot purchases with minimum spend of RM50*. New businesses are joining #JomSapot every week, so do keep an eye out for new deals. Promotion ends 14 April 2021.



The Reunion Dinner

The Reunion Dinner on Chinese New Year’s Eve is probably one of the most important events for Chinese families. In this new normal, many families will be gathering over Zoom for the Reunion Dinner or having small, quiet dinners at home.

However, one of the highlights of the Reunion Dinner is the home-cooked food, often cooked by the matriarch of the family. This is not something that can be replicated easily. But, families can turn this into an opportunity for family bonding. If the cooking has always been done by older members of the family, maybe it’s time for the younger generation to learn how to make their favourite family recipes. Make an event out of it leading up to Chinese New Year by setting up Zoom cooking lessons for everyone to participate in. This will be a valuable bonding session when everyone is apart and stuck at home. Record these Zoom sessions and you will have preserved your family’s precious recipes for future generations.

If your extended family is living near each other, you can have a potluck, social distancing style. Every family can cook a signature dish, then exchange dishes with each other. You can still do this under MCO conditions. There are many delivery services such as Grab, Lalamove and Bungkusit, that can help you deliver food to each other. This way your family will be sharing the same meal even when you are apart.

Since we are all breaking with tradition already, why not take a break from cooking this year? Treat your family cooks to a relaxing Chinese New Year’s Eve by ordering Reunion Dinner dishes from your favourite restaurants. Just make sure to order in advance to avoid disappointment. If you do decide to order your dinner, you can enjoy RM68 off all Prosperity Abalone Treasure Pot Feasts at Dragon-i, Canton-i & Dragon-i Peking Duck restaurants or enjoy RM88 off all Celebration Pots from the Oriental Group of Restaurants. Promotion ends 28 February 2021. Purchases must be made using your RHB Credit Card or RHB Debit Card and are for dine-in and take away orders only*. Also, check out RHB #JomSapot for deals from local businesses, and make it a more meaningful Reunion Dinner.




Family Gatherings

With the MCO, physical gatherings are not allowed. However, families can still get together online via Zoom or other meeting software. Organise slots with different groups of family and friends, so that you feel that you are having visits all day. You can play games together just as you would at a physical gathering as online apps allow you to play board games and card games with friends and family. For those whom karaoke is part and parcel of festivities, you can host virtual karaoke parties too. Arrange for a Zoom call with your elders in lieu of the traditional visit and record your Zoom sessions for the family records. Delight children and elders alike by sending angpows virtually using DuitNow* with RHB Now Internet Banking or RHB Mobile Banking App.

Take advantage of RHB’s Big Deals on Taobao, Shopee and Lazada to save more on purchases of Chinese New Year gifts such as food hampers and mandarin oranges for delivery to your family members. You will also have a chance to get 100% Cash Back on your online festive shopping.* And don’t forget to support local businesses with RHB #JomSapot.

CNY-new normal
Giving and receiving angpows

Some of you may decide that not attending gatherings means an opportunity to save on giving angpows. However, if you would like to give red packets to your nearest and dearest, e-angpows are possible via DuitNow with RHB Now Internet Banking and RHB Mobile Banking App. This makes it easy to save angpow money too, as the angpow goes directly into the bank account, just waiting to be transferred online to an RHB Fixed Deposit account. No need to go looking for cash deposit machines, especially those that accept RM1 and RM5 notes. If you are receiving e-angpows on behalf of your children, it is easy to open a new Savings Account/-i for them online* and get them started on a saving habit.



Greater Prosperity this Chinese New Year with RHB

The muted Chinese New Year celebrations can mean more savings as we are celebrating on a smaller scale than we have budgeted for. We won’t be travelling and hosting open house events as usual, leading to less spending on entertainment, angpows and travel expenses.

Use these savings as a launchpad to greater prosperity. Set your savings aside easily by depositing them into an RHB Fixed Deposit account^ online using RHB Now Internet Banking. If you want more flexibility, choose the RHB MaxSave^ or RHB Smart Account/-i^ to grow your savings more quickly. It is now so easy to open a new RHB Deposit Account/-i^ online.

Open an RHB MaxSave account^ if you are interested in maximising your savings. This account only requires an RM200 initial deposit. Its multi-tiered interest will encourage you to save, as you get higher interest with higher deposits*.

If you would like to be rewarded for all your financial activities, the RHB Smart Account/-i^ is for you. Get additional interest adding up to 2.85% p.a.* for depositing savings each month, paying your bills and spending on your credit or debit card/-i. You will also get an additional bonus interest rate* when you make an investment.

We hope our tips will help you and your family have a festive yet safe Chinese New Year this coming year of the Ox. We wish you a prosperous and healthy year ahead.


*Terms and Conditions apply.
^Deposit products are protected by PIDM up to RM250,000 for each depositor. Investment products are not protected by PIDM. Member of PIDM.


Sources:
1DW.com, How Fashion Impacts our Mental Wellbeing, 24 September 2019.



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