Welcoming the Year of the Rabbit

We recently had our first experience of Chinese New Year in a country that actually celebrates it. About 75% of Singaporeans are ethnically Chinese and Chinese New Year is a very important event.

The Chinese prepare for New Year by putting up lots of red decorations. These were all over Singapore, including our apartment building and school. Red is seen as an auspicious colour. Chinese people also prepare by sweeping their house in order to remove any bad spirits and allow room for the good luck of the new year.

The official day of Chinese New Year was Thursday February 3rd. On this day many businesses are closed in Singapore. Even our local 24 hour Fairprice supermarket was closed. Businesses owned by Chinese people are closed for around 4 days over the Chinese New Year period. Chinese New Year day and the day after are both public holidays in Singapore.

On Chinese New Year eve we went to River Hongbao. This is a carnival with entertainment, rides and food. There is a countdown to midnight and fireworks.



There is a Chinese New Year custom referred to as 'red packets'. Red packets are given to younger, unmarried people by older, married people. They are red envelopes that contain money. The money is often some sort of combination of 8 and never a combination of 4. This is because 8 is auspicious and 4 is unlucky.

Another custom is to give mandarins. If you visit someone during Chinese New Year it is customary to give mandarins, and they will give you mandarins in return. Mandarins are never given singly or as a 4. At school we were each given 2 mandarins. They are to be eaten.

At school we had a lion and dragon dance. The whole school sat in the gym and a lion puppet carried by 2 men danced around to the beat of drums. Then there was a huge dragon puppet that was carried by about 6 men. The children all screamed and yelled when they came close. They had to make a lot of noise to drive out the bad spirits.

(Thanks Toni for the picture!)

There were various ways that businesses celebrated Chinese New Year. Something common was to give out empty red packets to customers who spent a certain amount in store. The red packets could then be filled with money and given as Chinese New Year gifts. Starhub (pay TV) had a promotion where subscribers received all the channels for free over the Chinese New Year weekend. Pizza hut had a 'fortune pizza':

It was nice to experience Chinese New Year in Singapore, however perhaps next year we will do what most staff at school do - take a holiday outside of Singapore.