Celebrating Chinese New Year in Singapore

Chinese New Year is the first of several major ethnic festivals to take place in Singapore each year. With the Singaporean population primarily Chinese, it is considered one of the most important festivals in the city-state. Preparation and anticipation for this festival can be felt throughout Singapore for about a month before the actual holiday.

The dates for Chinese New Year are typically around the first half of February, sometimes happening as early as late January. Because of this, there is a palpable sensation of gearing-to-go the moment Christmas and January 1^st are over. Bazaars spring up all over Singapore overnight. Some malls creatively refurbish their Christmas decorations to suit the lunar festival. Christmas puddings and Santa Claus are speedily replaced with New Year kuay (cakes) and the jovial Gods of Fortune, with red and gold becoming the dominant colours everywhere. One knows Chinese New Year is near, when at every corner, there is a red decoration glittering with golden Chinese characters.

The harbinger of Chinese New Year in Singapore is the annual Chinatown festive light-up and street bazaar. A grand ceremony kick-starts this in early January each year, transforming the Chinatown area into a bustling festive playground with stalls retailing New Year goods everywhere. The bazaar itself lasts till Chinese New Year’s Eve, and from start to end, is packed with festive shoppers and tourists every night.

Nowadays, Chinese New Year goods are easily found all over Singapore. Despite that, many Singaporeans, Chinese and non-Chinese, still visit the Chinatown bazaar to soak in the festive ambience. On selected days, there are also street performances in and around the bazaar to enjoy. Ask any Singaporean where to go within the country at the start of the year, and Chinatown would surely be at the top of the list. With much to see and sample, it is an event not to be missed.

Other than Chinatown, another heart of celebration for Chinese New Year in Singapore is at Waterloo Street. While the festive market here is much smaller, it is equally popular because the area is next to the popular Kwan Im Thong Hood Cho Temple (see below) and Bugis Street Market. There is also a popular shrine to Phra Phrom, or Thailand's revered Four-Face Buddha. Many shoppers take the opportunity to offer respects to Phra Phrom when shopping for New Year festive goodies here.

According to some, Chinese New Year is all about food. Others say it’s all about prosperity and money-making in the coming year.

Just step into any Chinese New Year bazaar in Singapore, be it the one at Chinatown or elsewhere, and you would understand why these claims came about. Food stalls are everywhere. Every night, there are long queues before the most famous stores. Almost every store is splashed in vibrant red, with dashes of gold here and there. Those able to read Chinese would notice the wordings on decorations are all well wishes for prosperity and easy money making. The character Huat (發), Hokkien for a windfall, is very commonly used. Even more so is Fu (福), the Chinese character for blessings. Cakes, snacks and decorations prominently feature these two characters on them. The characters themselves are almost synonymous with Chinese New Year.

One of the most important rituals of Chinese New Year is the Reunion Dinner, which takes place on the evening of the eve. On this night, Chinese families gather for a sumptuous dinner. The meal itself symbolises unity and harmony of the entire extended family.

In the past, mothers and grandmothers slog for days to prepare for this important meal. Food markets are correspondingly packed with frantic shoppers right up to the last moment. Today, many Singaporean families opt to have their Reunion Dinners at restaurants instead. This translates to practically all Chinese restaurants operating on the eve offering only Reunion Dinner packages, and with these packages fully booked way in advance. For tourists, this is something to take note of. It is usually a challenge finding a place to eat on Chinese New Year's Eve. Even Non-Chinese eateries, such as fast-food outlets, are very crowded with long queues on that night.

Another ritual for the eve, albeit a less formal one, is visiting the flower bazaars or temples after Reunion Dinner. The former, called guang hua shi (逛花市) in Chinese, originated from the custom of visiting bazaars to buy festive plants as decoration. Of course, most Chinese families today would have already purchased all their decorations by the eve, but guang hua shi remains a popular outing with many, especially with stalls often offering outrageous bargains before closing at midnight. For the religious, the hours before midnight are for visits to popular temples and shrines, purpose being to offer prayers to deities at the onset of the New Year. Such prayers, or di yi zhu xiang (第一柱香), invites peace and blessings for the whole of the New Year. In Singapore, the Waterloo Street Kwan Im Thong Hood Cho Temple is the foremost location for this practice. The area and the surrounding bazaars are packed from late evening till past midnight on the eve.

With most shops and businesses closed, the streets of Singapore are relatively quiet on the first day of Chinese New Year. There is, however, plenty of human traffic, as Chinese families rush to visit relatives while decked out in bright colours. All would have with them vivid paper carriers containing Mandarin oranges. These oranges are the standard and the must for any Chinese New Year visit.

The closure of the Chinatown bazaar on the eve doesn’t mean the cessation of street celebrations. In fact, a bigger, more dazzling one begins toward the end of the Chinatown celebrations. Known as River Hongbao and nowadays situated at The Float @ Marina Bay, this is a large open-air exhibition featuring immense lanterns, cultural performances, and even fireworks. For Singaporeans, River Hongbao replaces Chinatown as the place to go after the New Year is here. With the spectacular skyline of Singapore as the backdrop, there is indeed nowhere else in Singapore more suitable for celebrations. There is also nowhere else more atmospheric to embrace the New Year.