Chinese Traditions that have nothing to do with the New Year

Hollie is big into tradition. And I didn't really think about it before I met her, but I suppose I am, too. Christmas traditions trifle and french onion soup, Easter traditions like a stick of butter shaped like a lamb, decorating the house for Halloween the first weekend in October, and other things that don't necessarily involve holidays or food (who am I kidding? Most of them involve food). But there's a difference between a tradition, something with meaning, and ritual, a repeated act act without much thought behind it.

For instance, it was something of a college ritual for Hollie and I to get Sunday lunch/dinner at this mediocre Chinese buffet in Lewisburg called China King. Considering we didn't usually wake up until close to noon most Sundays, and were likely to fall into a food coma shortly after we ate, it was likely the only meal we had on the days we went.

While the food wasn't spectacular, it was cheap, and it was a nice way to finish off the weekend. It became such a normal, boring event for us, that when I decided to ask her to marry me, I thought the best way to surprise her was to pop the question at one of these meals, rather than at some extravagant outing that would give away the game. So I ordered a few custom fortune cookies and brought them with me on one of my visits back to Bucknell during Hollie's senior year. We went to China King that Sunday, and after a series of surprisingly odd and difficult hurdles (a story for another time) I managed to get the cookies onto the check plate before we left. And the great thing was, she was surprised. She said yes, and the rest is history. But the funny thing is, without really knowing what I was doing, I turned a ritual into a tradition.

Now, when important things happen in our lives, we get Chinese food. We've moved on from buffets to take out, but the idea remains the same. When we moved in together, we got take out from this place on South Street in Philly whose name eludes me at the moment. When we finally got all the furniture moved into our house in Jersey, we ate Chinese food from Good Friend on the Black Horse Pike.

And when Hollie wanted to tell me she was pregnant, she pre-ordered some custom fortune cookies for the occasion and hid them for a few months. When the moment struck back in January, she suggested we get take-out, then she snuck them into the bag when I wasn't looking. I was as surprised then as I hope she was six 1/2 years ago when I proposed.

And you know what? I think I know what we're having for dinner when we bring the baby home.