I first learnt about the festival Chap Goh Mei when I was doing my A-levels in a boarding school somewhere in the heart of the city. I was informed that it was celebrated on the 15th day of the Chinese New Year and also known as the Chinese version of Valentine's Day. I was also told that during Chap Goh Mei, it was traditional for single women to throw oranges in a river and then whoever "catches" your orange downstream will be your one true love.
Others don't seem to mind discarding oranges in any body of water in the hopes of finding one's true love
Since there's no river near me, and also because I didn't want to waste an orange AND also how would whoever "caught" my orange knew it was MY orange, I put that tale out of my head. (I later learnt that these days, folks put their phone number on the orange so whoever caught it could call them. Even for true love I wouldn't do this, doesn't seem safe).
Whenever Chap Goh Mei comes around each year however, I'm reminded of the night when my friends and I decided to celebrate it our way. Or rather their way, I was just there for the ride.
At the time, us girls lived in one hostel while the boys were housed in the hostel beside us. Both our hostels had rooftops and if we wanted to chat with the guys, we'd go up there and speak with them across the narrow divide between the buildings. During Chap Goh Mei of my 18th year, one of the girls had the brilliant idea of throwing a durian across the way to the guys. It took two of us to throw the durian and when it landed on the guys' side, it broke apart and the guys had durian for supper. I remember that the entire endeavour was filled with laughter but to this day, I still wondered why a durian?
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