The Fifteen Days of the Lunar New Year

This is the period that the Chinese community all over the world look forward to.  It is also known as the Spring Festival.  During this period there will be many visits to homes of friends and relatives and feasting.

The Lion Dance is synonymous with the Lunar New Year. Lion dance troupes perform in shopping malls and in private homes by invitation.  When a troupe is invited to perform in private homes, they are given big ang paos. The lion will also enter the home to bring luck and to dispel any negative elements. These days the lion dance performers have become very skilful and they perform acrobatic stunts on posts of different heights, leaping from one to another. Their agility and coordination usually bring gasps of admiration among the audience.  

In smaller towns, small groups of performers may go from shop to shop to perform, bringing luck to the premises and they are usually given ang paos.

In fact, the celebration begins on the eve of the new year with the family reunion dinner.  Family members from near and far return home for this important dinner, not only to eat but to bond once more and most important, to pay respects to their elders. After the feasting, members will play card games or catch up on one another’s lives late until the early hours of the morning. The belief is that the longer you stay up, the longer your parents will live. At the stroke of midnight, fire crackers shatter the silence of the night and fireworks light up the sky.

Day 1 sees the children all excited and dressed in their new clothes. They greet and pay respects to their parents and grandparents. In return they receive their ang paos or red envelopes containing gifts of money.

Friends and relatives may come and visit too, bringing mandarin oranges and other gifts such as groundnuts which signify longetivity, cookies etc. No one goes visiting without bringing gifts of mandarin oranges as they symbolise prosperity.

The visiting continues on day 2 but on day 3, the more traditional Chinese will stay home as they consider it is not an auspicious day to make any visits. There is the belief that quarrels and fights may occur so, rather than risk that, they prefer to remain at home.

Day 4 is when the Kitchen God, the God of Fortune and other Gods are welcomed back into homes that believe in them. There is an abundant offering of fruit and food and joss sticks and candles are lighted as the believers pray for a good year.

Day 5 is the birthday of the God of Wealth and a feast is held to mark his birthday and to ask for his blessings. Some businesses resume work on this day as it is considered to be an auspicious day.

Days 6 to 10 are spent visiting homes of friends and relatives.

Day 7 is the Birthday of Man. People gather for a feast and raw fish is a must-have as it is a symbol of abundance, prosperity and vigour. Yee sang is usually the raw fish salad they partake of.

Day 9 is of great significance to the Hokkien community. The Hokkiens are a particular ethnic group who celebrate the birthday of the Jade Emperor at midnight on Day 8. They give thanks to the Jade Emperor for saving their lives when they hid in a sugar cane plantation to escape a massacre. This celebration always includes a pair of sugarcanes among the offerings. To the Hokkiens, this is actually their New Year.

Day 10 onwards sees more feasting and dinners among friends and relatives especially in the business community who take this opportunity to thank their clients for their support.

Day 15 is the last day of the New Year and it is known as Chap Goh Mei meaning 15^th night. This is when unmarried women throw oranges (with their names and contact numbers written on them) into the sea or river or pond, in the hopes of finding a life partner.

Later on you can find young bachelors hopefully scooping up the oranges!!

Needless to say, the celebrations are always accompanied by the burning of fire crackers which are very noisy and leave behind a red carpet which symbolises prosperity.  In our country, the burning of fire crackers has been banned now because it caused fires in the past and there were many complaints of children and dogs being frightened by the loud sounds. However, some homes still burn these crackers at the risk of being arrested. The lion dances are also performed on the first and second day of the lunar new year and on the final day of the celebrations.

Here's wishing everyone Gong Xi Fa Cai!

Auspicious Food For The Lunar New Year

The Chinese community always look forward to the eve of the Lunar New Year.  The main reason is the reunion dinner where members of the family will return to the family home, from far and near to re-bond over a dinner. Thus, there is always a great exodus from the cities to smaller towns or villages, wherever the family home is.  Since it is only once a year, it is de riguer for the male members of the family to return home to pay respects to their parents. They will bring their own families with them, hence the reunion is a large and much celebrated event.

The food that is placed on the table are usually delicious and symbolic. Many will be delicacies that are only eaten at this time of the year. First, there is the fish dish, which is usually steamed whole, together with its head and tail. It signifies surplus and encompasses the belief and hope that one will always have more than one needs.

The glutinous rice cake or “Nian Gao” denotes gaining prosperity and reaching new heights in life. This is usually fried with a slice of yam on one side and sweet potato on the other. Or it is sometimes served with fresh grated coconut. It has a sticky texture and is served to the “Kitchen God” before the New Year so that he will only have good reports of the family when he goes to meet the God in Heaven.

Prawns are also a must as its name indicates laughter and everyone wants a year that is filled with joy and laughter.

Chinese dumplings which are shaped like ingots indicate .prosperity.

Another must-have dish is the braised sea cucumber (symbolising happiness), mushrooms, dried oysters ( symbolising  good deeds), dried scallops and black moss or fatt choi which means having struck rich. Sometimes families opt for the "Poon Choi" or Prosperity Pot which has all the auspicious food inside including abalone and prawns.

 Other dishes would include, chicken, pork, noodles and the style of cooking would depend on what the family fancies.

However, the dish that is most significant is the “Yee Sang” or raw fish salad which is colourful and contains many different types of ingredients such as shredded vegetables like radish (green for eternal youth, white for promotions at work and increasingly good business), carrot ( good luck), Pomelo sacs ( wealth), crushed peanuts representing gold and silver, crackers and sesame seeds which denote prosperity.

Then, after these ingredients are arranged on the platter, the raw fish, usually salmon is added. This is a wish for abundance throughout the year that is coming in. Pepper is then sprinkled over the dish, in the hope that wishes will be fulfilled and wealth will flow in. Next, oil is poured over the dish, in a circle, signifying money flowing in from all directions and smooth sailing throughout the in-coming year. This is followed by the addition of a sweet plum sauce which augurs for a year of sweetness.  Sometimes, the raw fish is substituted with jelly fish or abalone as not everyone has a taste for raw fish. When the dish is done, the family will gather round the table.

Using long chopsticks, they will toss the salad as high as possible, uttering good wishes, such as wishes for prosperity, good health, excellence in whatever they do, etc., etc.  The higher the toss, the better the fortunes for the year.

No celebration is complete without this dish and it has grown very popular, even among the non-Chinese.

Needless to say, most of us will gain an extra kilo or two after all this feasting! But, the consensus is "eat first and worry about the weight later" with which I fully agree!

Goodbye Monkey Year and Welcome, Year of the Rooster

The Year of the Monkey has seen much turbulence, not only in the natural world but also in politics. Leaders have fallen from high positions and earthquakes, floods and fires have taken a toll on the land. Wars have caused misery to countless millions of people. These events have many people saying that the End Times are here.  It is certainly with relief that many wave the Monkey on its way out and greet the Rooster with hope for a better year.

What Does The Rooster Symbolise?

To the Chinese, this zodiac sign is auspicious so the Year of the Fire Rooster is expected to bring overall improvement during the year of its reign. 

A feng shui expert shared that there are five virtues associated with the rooster, namely politeness, courage, benevolence, reliability and bravery. It is a fearless fighter and it is reliable because it never fails to crow every morning, acting as an alarm clock for many especially those in the rural areas.

The chicken is also a traditional offering for prayers. Whole chickens, steamed, can be seen at the altars.  

 Apart from that, it is also used to represent an absent groom during a wedding ceremony, especially when it is a “ghost” wedding where one partner is already deceased. If the man has already passed on, then the rooster is used in his place, while a hen would represent the deceased bride.

An interesting ritual which used to be practiced in the past as part of a wedding ceremony, is a pair of chickens, a hen and a rooster which are tied together and placed under the matrimonial bed. The following morning, when they are untied, the chicken which runs out first will indicate the gender of the baby that the couple will have. A rooster would indicate a boy while the hen would indicate a girl.

The rooster can also ward off evil and when it crows at dawn, it signifies that all ghosts and evil elements would go away.

The Chinese community especially the business sector look forward to its strutting on stage when the Monkey bows out.

Wishing my family, relatives and friends Gong Xi Fa Cai!