This was my first Chinese New Year celebration. As I have documented, there were decorations everywhere with mandarins, gold, red and the god of prosperity. On Friday we decided to go to Marina Bay and see the "carnival" that had been prepared. My mother-in-law, Sarah and Daniel came with me while Nohemi stayed home with the twins.
At the fairground, I noticed several people (mainly children and women) were dressing in traditional Chinese dresses, with bright red and gold colors. There was a festive atmosphere and families were strolling along the Singapore River. Towards the center, there was a big gazebo with stands indicating the different holidays Singapore celebrate. The one that I found most interesting was called "The festival of the Hungry Ghost" In this uniquely Singaporean festival, people burn pieces of paper to apeace the ancestors' spirits.
Ther was also a big statue-about 10 meters high-of the god of prosperity, a chubby ancient Chinese god that is said to, well, to bring prosperity. At the stroke of midnight, this god throws "gold" coins to signify a prosperous new year.
At the end of the day everyone was very tired but nevertheless we went to a very nice restaurant at the legendary Fullerton Hotel, at the Singapore riverfront. Sarah was sooo happy to be there that that's when I realized how much she misses USA. I hope she adapts well to this new culture and gets to enjoy it as much as we do.
On the actual New Year, I decided to follow an ancient Chinese tradition: I gave Sarah and Daniel some money in a red envelop. The idea is that seniors give this envolpes to juniors (parents to children, uncles to nephews, etc) in even amounts -2,6,8 dollars- but never 4 since 4 is an unlucky number. Then children place the envelop underneath their pillow and sleep with it for one night. This is supposedly to bring good fortune for the future. Notwithstanding the "good fortune" part, I though it would be a fun activity for the children so I gave them their money. The problem is I think they are still keeping it under their pillows. In any case, they had fun and got to experience a new cultural tradition that we had never heard of.
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