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!