The Year of the Rat

Gong Xi Fa Cai!

Happy Lunar New Year to all my readers. As we enter the Year of the Rat, I have made several resolutions, one of which is to play more tennis (actually, to play any tennis would be a start) so my sister and I have booked the court for 7 am tomorrow. We are hoping it will be cool enough to play at that hour (and also that nobody will be watching our sorry excuse for a game). Another is to write these posts more regularly, so keep a look out for more notes from Singapore.

This is the first time I have experienced Chinese New Year in Asia, and it is very special. There are special rituals and foods associated with the new year period, which starts with the New Moon on the first day of the new year - February 7th this year - and ends on the full moon 15 days later. Today is the first day of a 2 day public holiday and, unheard of in Singapore, the shops are actually shut!

New Year's Eve and New Year's Day are typically celebrated as a family affair. Most of my team at work were out at their "reunion dinner" last night, which seems to be a bit like Thanksgiving in the U.S.. Families come together from wherever they are living and there is a special menu. We have sampled a couple of things, and the Yu Sheng was great fun. It's a combination of raw fish, raw vegetables (which symbolise the renewal of life), and pickled vegetables, mixed with condiments and tossed high in the air with extra long chopsticks, while shouting out "Lo Hei!" The higher the toss, the greater the prosperity for the new year.

There are many rituals associated with the new year, like taking a gift of mandarin oranges (two, wrapped) to anyone whom you visit during the new year festivities. You give these to your host when you arrive, and they give you two when you leave. We did get to wondering whether it would be possible to have only two mandarins, that you constantly recycle - give two, receive two, give two, recieve two etc, but maybe not.......

In terms of New Year entertainment, lion dancing is the thing, accompanied by the loudest drumming you can imagine. We saw two lots of lion dancing today - not as good as in Hong Kong, according to the lady standing beside me in the crowd - but it looked pretty fine to me. Judge for yourself from the picture above.