Happy Chinese New Year / Gong Xi Fa Cai

In January, Singapore celebrated Chinese New Year, also known as Lunar New Year or Chun Jie (Spring Festival). Since about 2/3rds of Singaporeans are of Chinese decent, it is an important time here in Singapore.

There are a number of interesting traditions for Chinese New Year. I guess I would liken it most to US Thanksgiving. CNY is characterized by the following:

Reunion Feasts - On the eve of the first day of Chinese New Year, families come together, typically to the home of the eldest, to have a festive dinner. This is a time to celebrate family togetherness and is very important. Typical foods might be some of the following:

Yusheng - (raw fish salad) - In Singapore, it is served unmixed and all the people use their chopsticks to toss the salad. The higher the toss, the more prosperity you will have in the coming year.

Shark's fin soup, Abalone, fish maw, and mandarin oranges. In our office, a pair of mandarin oranges were given to everyone. These are quite auspicious and represent "golden luck".

At CNY, there are also "hongboas" given out. These are little red packets (envelopes) with money. Always give an even dollar amount (odd is not good luck) and usually some amount that has an 8 in it, since 8 is a very auspicous number. These packets are usually given by married couples to their elders and also to their unmarried juniors. The Management Committee members in my office donated money so that we could give a nominal amount in an hongboa to all the unmarried people in the office!

There are also other celebrations, such as a parade, lots of lights, street bazaars, etc. It is a fun time to be in Singapore! This year is the year of the Ox and as many of you know from Chinese restaurant menus, depending what year you were born, you are associated with a particular animal/reptile, etc. In our family, Leah is born in the year of the ox, so perhaps she will have the most auspicous year!

We hope everyone has a healthy and prosperous "Year of the Ox"!