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Events

Chinese New Year Traditions and Practices in Singapore

Chinese New Year, also known as the Lunar New Year, is one of the biggest holidays in Singapore. Chinatown gets all decked out in festive red, and the annual Chinese New Year bazaar goes into full swing. These are all part and parcel of the holiday traditions. Find out more about what you can do to usher in the new year, Singaporean Chinese style!


A Fresh New Start

Getting your house in order is top priority when it comes to preparing for the Chinese New Year celebrations. Spring cleaning is an annual tradition in which the whole family is enlisted to make sure the home is spick and span. Furniture is polished, corners are dusted, new bedsheets are put on the bed and the house is decorated in auspicious red and gold colours. Red packets, known as hong bao, are primarily used to give money to younger unmarried relatives and children, but they are also used as decoration. They can be used to make paper lanterns or even shaped like a goldfish – which are of course another symbol of wealth as ‘fish’ in Mandarin is a homonym for ‘surplus’.

Special new year plants that are only available during this time of the year are also bought to decorate the house. These plants bring a fresh, festive air with them and brighten up the home with their colours. The most popular plants that Singaporeans will buy are:

  • Large and small kumquats
  • Pussy willows
  • Plumed and crested cockscomb flowers
  • Marigolds
  • Chrysanthemums
  • Small bamboo plants

Clockwise from top left: Chrysanthemums, small kumquats, coloured pussy willows and bamboo


The Reunion Dinner

However, the celebrations start even before the first day of Chinese New Year. On Chinese New Year Eve, the last of the spring cleaning and decorating is done. The immediate family then gathers for a sumptuous dinner, known as the reunion dinner. Seafood usually features heavily on the menu, with abalone, sea cucumbers and fish being must-haves. In a tradition unique to Singapore and Malaysia, we also toss yu sheng – a colourful salad of julienned white radish, carrots, cucumber, pomelo, red pickled ginger, pillow crackers and either raw fish or abalone. Five-spice powder, pepper, sesame seeds and plum sauce are added and everyone gathers around the plate to toss the salad with their chopsticks while saying auspicious phrases. The higher you toss the better, as it symbolises rising fortune. Don’t worry about the mess!


Traditions and Well Wishes

The days leading up to the first day of Chinese New Year are a flurry of preparations, but on the actual day itself, all you have to do is enjoy the buzz. The day starts early, and everyone gets dressed in new clothes (after having donned new pyjamas and slept on new bedsheets the night before) and starts off the morning by giving a pair of mandarin oranges to the elders in the family. This must be accompanied by a profusion of auspicious phrases such as 恭喜发财gong xi fa cai, 万事如意wan shi ru yi, 年年有余nian nian you yu, 龙马精神long ma jing shen, 财源滚滚 cai yuan gun gun… The list goes on. The phrases centre around wishes for good fortune, prosperity and health. In return, the unmarried juniors in the family receive red packets of money.

Then, the visiting starts. The entire extended family will descend upon one chosen venue (usually the home of the oldest patriarch or matriarch, although practical concerns mean sometimes it’s at the home of the relative with the largest house to accommodate all the relatives) and spend the day eating, drinking, gambling and catching up with each other. Most people will move on after a couple of hours in order to visit both the paternal and maternal branches of their families. Throughout it all, wishes for good fortune and health are exchanged – as are mandarin oranges to elders and red packets containing money to unmarried juniors.

Participating in these traditions will be a little challenging as chances are you don’t have your extended family with you while you’re in Singapore, but keep an eye out for next week’s article when we introduce the traditional food and goodies that you can partake of easily while you’re in Singapore. You can even bring them back with you if you want to take the tastes of Singapore’s Chinese New Year celebrations home!

 

 

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