While I had always been vaguely aware of Chinese New Year as a thing that exists, having lived through a CNY season in Singapore has given me a new appreciation for the holiday. The primary event of Lunar New Year is the Reunion Dinner, a traditionally 8-course meal during which parents berate their children for not amounting to more and where children suffer the attention of aunties and uncles in exchange for red envelopes full of money. Basically Thanksgiving dinner but without the food coma in front of a football game afterwards. Other observations from our day-to-day lives here:
- A month before New Year, tents pop up in parking lots selling red decorations and paper-craft representations of luxury goods to be burned as offerings to your ancestors. They remind me of the roadside Independence Day fireworks stands that used to sprout up just on the other side of the Wisconsin/Minnesota border.
- On New Year itself there is a nearly constant banging of drums, gongs, and cymbals being used to drive away evil spirits. I watched/heard a flatbed utility truck drive by our condo streaming flags and filled with "musicians" in the back making an amazing racket.
- Red everywhere. Stores are decorated, apartments are decorated, offices are decorated. All of the ads in the MRT have red backgrounds. People wear red. Red red red. Red pineapple lanterns seem to be a uniquely Singaporean decoration.
- We went to Gardens By The Bay to take in their New Year events and got to see a lion dance on tall poles, acrobats and contortionists, and a blacklight dragon dance. It was pretty sweet, and about on-par with the Christmas celebration they had.
This was straight-up insane and somehow they did not die. - Fewer firecrackers than I was expecting. I assume it's because Singapore will fine you for the litter. (Elizabeth says they've been outlawed - but representations of firecrackers are still a popular CNY decoration)
- We also attended River Hongbao which was an elaborate lantern-and-parade based celebration that culminated in an over-the top parade and late night dance party. There was a midway with expensive kiddy rides, temporary food stalls selling fried food and icees, and an array of edutainment exhibits. Basically the State Fair, but minus the tractors. And on a floating stage adjoining the Formula 1 grandstands.
Babby is flying helicopter, how can this be?!
Off-brand robot hovercraft something something?
Monkey King just chilling at the party
Gong xi Gong xi!
They're harvesting a carrot. What.
The President of Singapore is on that lead float somewhere. - Lion Dances are a thing. In order to ensure prosperity for your family or business you need to have a Lion/Dragon dance performed at it. I witnessed one in a hotel in Kuala Lumpur when I was there for work, one at our condo, and one in the elevator lobby of our floor at work in Singapore. The drums and cymbals in a small, enclosed, hard-walled area like the interior of an office building is the loudest thing I have ever heard indoors in my life.
Bonus points if you can prep a customer workshop while this is going on! - Abalone are a traditional CNY dish. Until CNY I had no idea what they were other than something sold in giant tin cans at the cash registers in Singapore grocery stores, where they are kept under lock and key because they're like $80 per can. They are sea snails, and taste like a cross between a mussel and a lobster.
We had heard that Chinese New Year was not a good time to visit China since everyone's gone home to visit with family and everything's closed, and we weren't sure how that would translate to Singapore. It turns out that as demographics have shifted to more city living across eastern Asia CNY has become a more and more urban holiday with events and celebrations. Plenty of smaller shops and restaurants were certainly closed, but given how much awesome stuff was going on (and how mild the weather is this time of year!) I think it would make a great time to visit the region. Mark your calendars for next year, and stop on by if you're in the neighborhood.
Lots of new traditions to consider adding to your family's holidays.
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