‘Huat Ah!’, is a common vernacular heard during Chinese New Year. It literally means “to sprout”, or loosely means to be able to gain good fortune, usually with an expectation that it will be a sudden and massive amount of wealth attained.

It’s an annoying superstition/custom, given that people would shout it out at the top of their voices, repeatedly. It is as if the loudness and repetitions would somehow translate to an increasing probability or magnitude of it happening!

The wishful-ness of ‘something for nothing’ still runs strong in this country.