I wish you a very HAPPY VALENTINE’S DAY! For those who are still unattached, wish you find your Mr/Miss Right soon!

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The celebration of 15-day Chinese New Year festival has just come to an end on 9 Feb. The 15th day of the first lunar month is “Yuan Xiao” festival (元宵节) and it’s also the first night of the lunar year to see a full moon. There shall be many beautiful lanterns hanging around for people to appreciate, and people will try to solve riddles on the lanterns and eat Tangyuan (glutinous rice balls). The day is also known as Chinese Valentine’s day. In ancient China, it was the night that girls were allowed to leave homes to appreciate lanterns along the streets and they would drop their handkerchiefs for young men to pick them up and get to know the girls! I guess nowadays girls hardly use handkerchief but tissue packs to reserve dining tables during crowded lunch hours (especially in Singapore)!

Chinese New Year rice cake - “Nian gao” (年糕) sounds like “年高”, which literally means “increasingly prosperous year in year out”.

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Welcome to the Year of Ox! Here are some pics taken from Singapore Chinatown just before Chinese New Year. These cute golden oxen are just located at Chinatown Point.

As I mentioned in my earlier Chinese New Year article, red is liberally used in all decoration during this festive season. Someone once asked, “Is red the main color of China (clothes, lights, sauce, hong-bau, firecrackers, communism, flag, roofs, etc)?

Here is an answer which I found from the web: Red symbolizes good fortune. There is an ancient Chinese legend about a man-eating beast called “Nian” which is a predatory creature. To scare off Nian, people covered their homes with the color red and filled the air with loud noises, ie. fire crackers.

Chinese like to grace their gates and doors with Chinese New Year’s couplets which are written on two strips of red paper. The red couplets are composed of sentences that complement each other and often rhyme. Nowadays, we hardly see handwritten couplets; these are all printed with different designs.

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Gong Xi Fa Cai! Today is the eighth day of the Spring festival. I am back to Singapore! Want some chocolates wrapped in gold foil?

How about some chocolates wrapped in Euro dollars? Or playing cards with chocolates?

Buns that symbolize longevity.

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I am blogging using a dial-up Internet connection, you know the turtle speed, so I’m not gonna upload any photo, er.. maybe one? I’ll just try… still in Ipoh-Malaysia now, but going back to Singapore tonight, so gonna upload more photos later.

Firstly, let me wish you all a HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

The Chinese New Year celebration lasts for 15 days. Today marks the seventh day of the first month on the lunar calendar. It’s “renri” (人日), the common man’s birthday and everyone grows one year older!

How do Chinese in Malaysia and Singapore celebrate “renri”?

We’ll be eating “Yusheng”(鱼 生), a plate of colourful salad with strips of raw fish (a popular choice is salmon). As you know, Chinese like to give auspicious names to dishes, especially on big occasion like the Lunar New Year. In Chinese, “Yusheng” is interpreted as (余升)an increase in abundance. In Cantonese, it’s known as “lo hei” (捞起 | toss up), families and friends get together and toss the shredded ingredients into the air with chopsticks while saying auspicious wishes loudly to mark the start of a prosperous new year. The higher you toss, the merrier it will be. But some folks just become too excited over tossing “Yusheng” that you might get shredded food all over your arms, er… sometimes, you get it on your hair cos the guys just tossed it over your head!

HAPPY RENRI!

You gonna see a series of posts in “red” cos Chinese New Year is coming soon and red is liberally used in all decorations! This year, the first day of of the first lunar month falls on 26 Jan.

Chinese homes are often decorated with paper cutouts (剪纸) of Chinese auspicious phrases and New Year’s couplets (春联) written on two strips of red papers, fresh flowers, plants and red lanterns that you can see here. Traditionally, lanterns are believed to scare away evil spirits while brightening the mood with the red glow of good luck.

In Chinese, “Fish” (鱼) and “abundant” (余) have the same pronunciation, so fish in the Chinese culture symbolizes wealth, like a popular Chinese phrase “年年有余” which means “may there be surpluses every year”. Fish also symbolize harmony, marital happiness and reproduction because they multiply rapidly.

The most popular fish motif found in Chinese art and culture is the Chinese carp or koi fish. The carp symbolizes strength and perseverance. Its scales and whiskers resemble that the dragon, a great symbol of power in China. Now, you can eat mango jelly koi! (Price tags shown in this post are in Singapore dollar.)

During Chinese New Year celebrations, families and friends make “new-year visits” (拜年) to one another’s homes. Every household keeps their tables topped up with sweet and savoury specialties to welcome relatives and friends with festive treats. With these irresistible temptations, it takes much discipline not to overeat and stay healthy!

“Today’s Special” - Buy pineapple tarts and get cashew nut or cappuccino cookies FREE!

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