A Chinese Birthday

My Little Dragon turned one last Thursday (he was born in the Year of the Dragon as per the Chinese Lunar Calendar)We thought we'd celebrate it as per Chinese traditions and customs to make it special , as we weren't planning of celebrating it in a big way.The Chinese consider a new born baby as a year old and another year will be added to their age on Chinese New Year.

 The most common tradition on a birthday is eating noodles for longevity and good luck...so his "Ayi" (nanny) prepared noodles for him to start his day.

The baby also receives money in a red envelope "hong bao" from friends and relatives. Among the gifts from friends and family, he received a hongbao from our friend Deepa (Aunty Dee) who made a special visit to him from Shanghai a week before his birthday.

A very important tradition followed by even the modern day Chinese is "Zhuazhou" This tradition is an age old custom in which random objects are placed in front of the baby , and the first object the child would pick will determine his future. We placed a Tennis racquet, a book,a toy piano,  laptop, stethoscope, camera,pens, a toy car calculator and money. Little Abraham came crawling from the other room and decided he'd pick money first, and then moved on to pick a car and play with some pens.

Later in the day we cut a cake singing " Zhu ni shengri kuai le" (the birthday song in chinese)...

We ordered the cake from Euro bakery in Shunyi , run by an expat couple who do customized cakes.
The cake was a simple vanilla cake with cream between the layers and it was covered with marzipan.
I was really satisfied with the outcome as I just picked up a picture off the internet and send it to them and told them my requirements over email. Delivery and service was prompt.
Visit their website at http://www.eurobakery.com.cn/

So that's how our baby had his first birthday - A Chinese style birthday :-)