CNY - Tien Gow

I'm back from a 2 week break and i have to say i feel absolutely refreshed and energised!! One word, greatness. :)

All the yummy delicious food that i have been devouring like there's no tomorrow, eating 6 meals a day, double of everything. The red packets with sweet smelling cash inside are always nice to have. This year the biggest ever received from Mom and Dad. Thanks guys!

This year is extra special because i flew from OZ, Chloe flew back from UK, and Jade flew back from KL, a complete family hanging out. Awesomeness!

One of the main events during my holiday. Chinese New Year. They have always been loud and merry. A western equivalent of Christmas time but a splendid 15 day celebration. Coming from a big family, we had the whole house full of people where there was no place else to sit or walk!

Fireworks go off at midnight and the sky is lit up with fireworks from everyone. Thousands of "Kong Ming" lanterns float into the sky lighting up the sky. These go on for two full nights. Dad and uncles have always played this game using Dominoes but played a complete different way. The game is called Tien Gow which means Heaven and Nine. We have always wondered how it worked and this year we finally got taught.


An example of Tien Gow, a male and female formation in sequence.

Dad gave us a 35 min lesson at 2.30 am, again, the complicated formations and names, worst of all in Cantonese (a chinese dialect) names and meanings to each tile, and ended it with "i will test you tomorrow morning". Dad style.

This ancient Chinese game came from the Dynasty era according to Dad as it was passed down from his dad, and his dad, and the ancestors. I felt privileged and felt guilty for not asking sooner. This game have complex rules and formations as there are males and females involved. To play this game, you have to memorise every sequence and formation, not forgetting differentiation between whether it is a male, female or mixed pair. Number of dots on the dominoes do not mean anything, only the formations, which is completely different from poker cards. The only thing similar to Poker is who has the upper hand gets to have the next go. Here's a Wiki link for Tien Gow.

Lastly, i'm proud to say me and my two sisters, also Samuel and Aaron, picked it up pretty much the next day and we even played a few games with dad and uncles! So good! Now we're ready for hard core advanced formations :)