My first Chinese Birthday Party

I was invited to a one-month-birthday party of my colleague's son and it ended up as a dinner of 200 people (20 tables). 99% of the invitees are of course adults and they are mostly friends of his and his wife's parents. Only 2-3 tables were actually his friends (or his wife).

The dinner started quite early at 5.30 pm but ended also around 8.30. It was like a free flow of food, I think there were about 20 kind of dishes served on the table and we gave up after the 8th dish. This is actually normal in chinese culture. There is actually a saying that a good host should order more than the guests can eat. Some even say that the guests should only be able to eat maximal 30-50% of what you've ordered. It is totally different than western culture. HSBC once made an interesting advertising about it. I'll post it a the end of this entry.

Also to my surprise, we were given some gifts after the party, consists of 2 kinds of chinese cakes/cookies and I estimate about 2 dozen of eggs! Yup, raw eggs! 2 dozen! I don't know what I should do with them now, perhaps I should return them in exchange for a cake? Well, apparently the chinese believe that eggs is the symbol of fertility and new beginning. As for me, that will mean we'll have scrambled egg for breakfast tomorrow, and the days after...