Chinese New Year

Meal Sample

Wenxu and his sister

Yee Sang

Mixing the Yee Sang

Little Rabbit towels

Oranges, fortune cookies, and New Years envelopes

What better place to celebrate Chinese New Year then in Singapore. The largest portion of the population are Malay Chinese and Chinese from China. Lately I have noticed many ads and decorations for ushering the new year. I had no clue that it was such a large holiday here! Singapore has two days off as a national holiday, so even the portion of the population that is not chinese gets a nice little break too. Every student from Singapore or surrounding areas travel home for Chinese New Year's eve. My friend Wenxu yet again was amazing to Kara and I, and invited us to spend the New Year's eve with his family. We quickly accepted and met him at the Ferrar Park MRT stop on Wednesday night. Since Wenxu's aunt is a vegetarian we had a slightly different meal than the traditional meal. Everything was served in large bowls on a glass turntable at the center of the table. Wenxu's explained that there are normally between 7-10 different entrees. I sampled everything from tofu soup, fried noodles, mock chicken, and every vegetable imaginable. I actually didn't know half the things I put into my mouth! I definitely liked some things and politely passed on a few. Everything of course was self serve with chopsticks, so I struggled getting the food to my plate. Everyone just laughed and allowed Kara and I to use a spoon to get our food on our plates. We ate with Wenxu, his younger brother and sister, older sister, parents, grandmother, and aunt and uncle. The kids more in our generation had really great english, and the father could communicate slightly. The others had to be translated to us. At the end of the meal we had a large traditional dessert called Yee Sang. This dessert is normally served with raw fish all around the plate but ours was just varying colored vegetables. The fish would represent a wish for a prosperous new year.  A sweet sauce was poured over everything and a blessing was said. Next everyone inserted their chopsticks and helped to mix everything together. Whoever lifted the vegetables higher while mixing would receive more luck. I unfortunately was not too swift with my chopsticks so hopefully I will find luck in other areas! After dinner Wenxu's grandmother gave Kara and I a small red envelope with the words "GONG XI FA CAI" on it. The literal translation is wishing good fortune, but everyone just says that as a Happy New Year saying. Inside was 10 sing which was soooo sweet of Wenxu's grandmother. The tradition is that the younger people receive money and the elders will give money. We then headed to Wenxu's flat in Jalan Bahagia. His family was so opening and friendly. Wenxu's mother gave us small towels wrapped up as rabbits for the new year animal, another 10 sing in an envelope, and four oranges. Oranges are symbolic of wealth to the recipient. We watched some Singaporean soap opera and then headed home for a good nights sleep. Next thursday there is a large parade on orchard street with dragon costumes and all! Happy year of the rabbit everyone and Gong Xi Fa Cai! Until next time...

xoxo

Leah