A Member's Guide to Chinese New Year

A Member’s

Guide to

CHINESE NEW YEAR

Written by

Jeffrey Jonathan international ambassador member for singapore

CHINESE LUNAR NEW YEAR 2013 This year, the Chinese Lunar New Year falls on February 10 & 11, bringing with it the Year of the Snake and bidding farewell to the Year of the Dragon. As the most important and widely celebrated festivals for the Chinese, the heartlands are filled with an air of festivity. Shopping malls, street lighting, hotels and homes are gaily decorated and the colour red can be seen everywhere, on banners hanging over doorways, on greeting cards and on clothes to be worn on New Year’s day.

The Lion Dance

THE ORIGIN The Chinese New Year has a great history, It was recorded that Chinese started to celebrate this occasion from about 2000 BC, though the celebrations were held on different times under different emperors.

Predating to 2000BC

They started to celebrate the Chinese New Year on the first day of the lunar calendar based on Emperor Wu Di’s almanac of the Han Dynasty.

Legend says the celebration of the Chinese New Year may be related to a beast known as Nian. The beast Nian came out to eat people on new years until an old man found a way to conquer it. Then people started to observe and celebrate Chinese New Year. The word “Nian” now has the same meaning as Chinese New Year, which is used as commonly as Chinese New Year. And people often used the term “Guo Nian” which may originally mean “passed or survived the Nian”.

The Preparation Preparation tends to begin a month from the date of Chinese New Year. A huge clean-up gets underway days before when Chinese houses are cleaned from top to bottom to sweep away any traces of bad luck, and doors and window panes are given a new coat of paint.

The doors, windows and walls are decorated with paper cuts and couplets (you can see these paper cuttings and couplets in Chinatown) with themes such as happiness, wealth and longevity printed on them. Sacrifices are made to the Kitchen God. Offerings are made to this household deity to ensure good reports to the Jade Emperor on the Kitchen God’s annual ascension to heaven.

Fresh paint is a must

The celebration On New Year’s eve, the whole extended family gathers for a reunion dinner. With affluence, this reunion for many now takes place at a restaurant instead of at home.

To cope with the demand, majority of restaurants are catering 3 separate sittings for the reunion dinners on New Year’s eve.

1st sitting from 5:00pm to 7:00pm; 2nd sitting from 7:00pm to 9:00pm and the last sitting from 9:00pm to 11:00pm.

This is an important occasion where every member of the family from near and far would try their best to make it back for this reunion dinner.

Every generation gets together

Traditions and rituals are carefully observed in everything from food to clothing. The festive season is marked by the setting off firecrackers and the performance of the lion dance to drive away evil spirits and attract good luck and blessings. Unfortunately, the firing of crackers was banned in Singapore in 1960s. The lion dance is believed to have originated from the Tang Dynasty. Persian merchants were said to have presented the Emperor of China with two lions. The lions had to be caged up because they were too violent. They were then tamed by a Buddhist monk and taught to dance to entertain the emperor.

The ‘Hong Bao’

Ang Pows, (as it is said in Hokkein and “Hong Bao” in Mandarin) are small red envelopes decorated with lucky symbols containing money in even denominations. They are given to children and unmarried adults during house visits. Mandarin oranges are also given out during house calls.

The Meaningful Traditional Chinese Lunar New Year Food Probably more food is consumed during the New Year celebrations than any other time of the year. Vast amounts of traditional food is prepared for family and friends, as well as those close to us who have died. Almost every dish has a symbolic meaning or name that sounds like a Chinese character for fortune, happiness, longevity and prosperity. For example: Hair seaweed (fatt choy) with dried oysters(ho see) sounds like “wealth and good business”, lotus roots (lin ngau) mean abundance year after year, while lettuce translates into “growing wealth” and pig’s tongue forecasts “profit”, lotus seed – signify having many male offspring, ginko nut – represents silver ingots, black moss seaweed – is a homonym for exceeding in wealth, dried bean curd is another homonym for fulfilment of wealth and happiness, bamboo shoots – is a term which sound like “wishing that everything would be well”, fresh bean curd or tofu is no included as it is white and unlucky for New Year as the colour WHITE signifies death and misfortune.

On New Year’s eve, when everyone gathers around the table for the “Family Reunion Dinner”. The carp (Pei Toh) is a typical main course, because it symbolizes a profitable year ahead. On a normal day, this fish is very cheap and is never a popular dish on the table. Only during the Chinese New Year period, this fish is rich in roe and the price is also exorbitant and is never fully eaten to ensure that the family will have an excess of good fortune throughout the year. Vegetables embody the freshness of “evergreen and store good fortune in their roots, Fish balls and meat balls are symbolic of “reunion”. The round shape of the meat and fish balls portray “togetherness”.

Thus steamboat dinners are usually eaten during the Chinese New Year period.

Great care is taken to serve an even number of dishes to bestow”double happiness” on the family. During the 15 days New Year celebrations, every household keeps their tables topped up with sweet and savoury specialities like Bak Kwa (BBQ pork) so they can welcome family and friends with a choice of festive treats. Another prerequisite of Lunar New Year is the “tray of togetherness”, a tray or special box filled with an assortment of auspicious treats. Among the most popular treats are sweetened lotus roots (symbolising abundance), sweetened lotus seeds (suggesting fertility), dried melon seeds (symbolising profuse earnings), and all kinds of candies, which are a source of long-term sweetness.

Fish is always the main course

‘Togetherness’

Seaweed

Tray of togetherness

CUSTOMS AND TABOOS A number of customs and taboos are observed during Chinese New Year: 1) No sweeping of floors is allowed on the first day 2) Laundry is not allowed to be hung on New Year’s eve 3) Chipped or broken crockery are also stashed away or thrown 4) Attire usually something red as this colour is meant to ward off evil spirits 5) Black and white are out, as these colours associated with mourning but this is no more true with fashion taking precedence, the younger generation are using black and white All the measures taken above are to avoid bad luck.

The celebrations go on for fifteen days. On the seventh day, the Chinese would eat a unique dish called “Ye Sang” (made up of thin slices of raw fish(Ikan Parang) now we also have Salmon and Abalone, shredded vegetables, herbs, spices and oil) and this is the day dedicated to mankind ‘cause it is everybody’s birthday.

No sweeping!

Dress in Red!

Apparently, there is no origin of “Ye Sang”. It has been rumoured that this money-spinning idea came from a Singaporean thus instead of formerly you can only start eating “Ye Sang” on the seventh day today it is available one month BEFORE Chinese New Year.

Traditional delicacies include prawn, for liveliness and happiness, dried oysters, for all things good, fai-hai (angel hair), an edible hairlike seaweed to bring prosperity, and jiao zi – dumplings boiled in water, signifying a long-lost good wish for a family, Tossing the ‘Ye Sang’

About the writer Our International Ambassador Club member for Singapore, Jeffrey Jonathan has been a dedicated member of the Hollandse Club since he joined in 2005 and currently represents all Singaporean members as their voice to other members.

He is a regular at Tradewinds Bar on Fridays along with his regular group of guests.

Besides being a frequent supporter of the Club and its many events, he also aims to encourage the growth of Singaporean nationals within our International Club.

Should you have any questions on Chinese New Year or general queries on Singapore and its cultures, simply drop Jeffrey an email at jeff.jonathan@gmail.com.

If you are interested in stepping forward as an Ambassador member for your country, simply email Evan Quek at sales@hollandseclub.org.sg