When Chinese New Year is around the corner, you will find most of the local Chinese residents spring-cleaning their house. They believe that if they do not clean their house before the New Year arrives, the bad luck accumulated from the last year will be carried forward to the coming year.
Other than cleaning up the house, most of the Chinese families will make a trip to Chinatown, which is located along Terengganu Street and Pagoda Street. A temporary street market will be set up and the whole street will be decorated with colourful lanterns. The street market sells a large variety of New Year goods ranging from food to decorative items. The Chinese believe that red symbolises good luck and prosperity, thus most of the items you can find in the street market are red in colour. They will buy auspicious motifs and decorative items to decorate their houses so as to give the house a brand new look to receive the arrival of the New Year.
On the eve of the Chinese New Year, families will gather and eat dinner together to signify unity and harmony within the whole family.There is a folk belief that if the children stay up till the actual New Year day, they actually can prolong the lifespan of their parents, thus most people will stay up late on the New Year's eve. Once the clock strikes twelve midnight, the children will pay their respect to their parents and elders with two mandarin oranges which is to symbolise good luck. In return, the elders will give the children a red packet, better known as Ang Bao or Hong Bao, as a token of good luck and blessing from them.
Other than the domestic celebrations, there is another highlight of Chinese New Year which is the River Hong Bao. This is an annual event that is held in Singapore to showcase Chinese culture performances, traditional art and food stuff. This is usually held at Marina Bay and would last for a month. There will be programmes scheduled which includes song played by the Chinese Orchestra, display of Wushu moves by Chinese martial arts experts and traditional Chinese dance by professional dance groups. You can also find a range of Chinese-related items ranging from Chinese painting, tradition Chinese paper-cuttings to delicious and mouth-watering snacks and dishes. It is free admission, thus you can choose to spend the whole day there and be immersed with the rich Chinese culture.
Video taken from youtube user,'xiaobat'
Video taken from youtube user, 'DanceEuphoria'
The Chingay parade is another major celebrating event that will happen during the Chinese New Year period, it is the grandest and largest scale street parade we have in Singapore. It is held on the first weekend of the Chinese New Year, therefore it does not have a fixed date. This Chingay parade was first introduced in the 1973 and featured only traditional acts by locals. However due to its great popularity and success over the years, it was expanded to become a large scale events with very elaborated floats, many different genres of performances with more than six hundred participants that are from all parts of the world. On the actual day of performance, there will be a magnificant and extensive display of fireworks and fire crakers. So do come and join in the fun and joyous occasion!
Reference:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_New_Year
http://www.visitsingapore.com/cny/
http://www.c-c-c.org/chineseculture/festival/newyear/newyear.html
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