Sweet Home Singapore: Happy Chinese New Year

Gong Xi Fa Cai from Singapore!! The Chinese New Year holiday is this Friday and Saturday. As you can imagine, this city is a buzz with festivities. 75% of Singaporeans are Chinese, so this is the biggest holiday for the country and a fun one at that! It's like Christmas and New Year all rolled into one! It is not a religious holiday, but one celebrating the first day of the year for the Chinese calendar.

The Eve of Chinese New Year is a time for families to gather for the annual reunion dinner (apparently, there is not a seat to be found in Sing restaurants this Friday night). Families also use the day to clean their homes top to bottom, to literally sweep away any ill-fortune and make way for good incoming luck!
Chinese New Year Day is spent visiting relatives. Windows and doors are decorated with red and gold paper cut-outs, with themes of happiness, good fortune, wealth and longevity. Homes are full of flowers and kumquat trees (small orange trees), which is the CNY version of a Christmas tree. It is also common to provide monetary gifts to family members in special red envelopes. The typical decor has either fish (for happiness), money bags (literally, for wealth and prosperity), pineapples (for welcoming) or the Chinese zodiac symbol for the upcoming year. In this case, 2014 is the year of the horse. I am a horse, so any of you also born in 1978, this is our good luck year!!

I read a little about the history of Chinese New Year and I found it interesting, because the same traditions hold true:
According to tales and legends, the beginning of Chinese New Year started with the fight against a mythical beast called the Nian(Chinese: 年; pinyin: Nián). Nian would come on the first day of New Year to eat livestock, crops, and even villagers, especially children. To protect themselves, the villagers would put food in front of their doors at the beginning of every year. It was believed that after the Nian ate the food they prepared, it wouldn’t attack any more people. One day people saw that the Nian was scared away by a little child wearing red. The villagers then understood that the Nian was afraid of the color red. Time when the New Year was about to come, the villagers would hang red lanterns and red spring scrolls on windows and doors. People also used firecrackers to frighten away the Nian. From then on, Nian never came to the village again.

I love all of the superstition embedded in Chinese traditions…numbers, animals, weather patterns, etc, and all are still significant in their culture. The kids are learning a lot about the traditions in school and Mia loves to retell the tales!

We went to Chinatown last weekend and spent the day buying decorations and trying new foods. We went bright and early to avoid the crowds and the heat. The place was PACKED by the time we left and it really did feel like China! The area is especially festive with even more small shops set up selling decor, clothing, plants and special treats that you can only find during the holiday.

Today the kids school hosted a CNY celebration, complete with lion and dragon dances! The kids went nuts for it! So fun! Lots of pics below, but need to figure out how to embed video as the music/drumming was amazing!

Such a fun time of year to live amongst the Chinese! xo

Giddy up! Horses everywhere!