Festive February in Singapore

Chinese New Year falls on February 19 this year and Singapore is set to mark the occasion in style. Travel Weekly brings you the pick of the action.

Singapore is one of those dynamic destinations where there is always an occasion to celebrate. And the biggest festival in February is Chinese New Year.

Celebrated over 15 days with public holidays held on February 19 and 20, the weeks leading up to Chinese New Year are frantic with preparation and shopping.

One tradition is to clean the house before the festive occasion – a symbolic gesture to sweep out the bad and old to make way for the good and new. It’s also customary to get a haircut as well as put on new clothes and shoes to signify a fresh start.

The auspicious colours of red and gold feature prominently throughout homes in the form of decorations and motifs, based on the themes of prosperity, happiness, wealth and longevity, as well as on people’s new clothes and accessories.

As Chinese New Year is a time for reunion, everyone visits relatives and friends, exchange oranges (always an even number, never odd), and married adults give children red packets containing money as a form of blessing and luck.

Families get together at the same table the night before for the obligatory Reunion Dinner, to symbolise an end to any misunderstandings that may have happened in the past year, in preparation for a clean slate in the new one.

Chinese New Year is also associated with particular snacks served to visitors like pineapple tarts, barbequed pork and ‘love letters’, but the most famous enjoyed by all is yu sheng (a raw fish salad).

Every ingredient of the salad symbolises good wishes and wealth in the coming year. The traditional way of enjoying yu sheng is for all at the table to toss the ingredients together with chopsticks held high; the height of the toss symbolising how much good luck the person will enjoy in the coming year.

Over the Chinese New Year period, Singapore’s major malls bustle with elaborate fetes, traditional songs, festive displays, and mouth-watering smells from food stalls selling a variety of holiday treats.

The festivities are concentrated in Chinatown in the lead-up to the big day, and from January 30, it will be transformed into an oriental wonderland filled with gorgeous light displays, Chinese calligraphy prints and lots of festive treats.

Be sure to catch the official Chinatown light-up and opening ceremony on January 31 at Eu Tong Sen Street and New Bridge Road, where streets will be festooned with stunning decorations through to March 19.

The countdown to Chinese New Year on February 18 is also a must-see event that will dazzle you with a fireworks display and performances by lion dancers (with an international competition on February 7), lively performances and interactive games.

The festive street bazaar at Chinatown, happening from January 30 to February 18, is the best place to soak in the lively atmosphere, as holiday shoppers throng the streets and make last-minute purchases at over 500 stalls. You’ll be spoilt for choice with the sheer variety of New Year goods including customary home decorations, barbecued sweetmeats, waxed duck and fresh cookies.

One other must-see event is the Chingay Parade on February 27. This street parade is a display of Singapore’s multicultural heritage as its most vibrant. Although held during Chinese New Year, Chingay has evolved throughout the years to become a multicultural festival, celebrated by all Singaporeans – Chinese, Malays, Indians and Eurasians alike.

Chingay today retains most of its original features, from when it was first established in 1973, including elaborately decorated floats accompanied by dancers, musicians, dragon and lion dances, all of which add to the atmosphere of colour.

At Marina Bay from February 17 to 28, you will find the River Hongbao event which impresses with its giant lanterns, nightly cultural performances and mouth-watering food. Crowd favourites include ‘live’ demonstrations of paper cutting, Chinese calligraphy, handicrafts, jewellery and other cultural products. You will be astonished by the larger than life lanterns depicting figures of Chinese myth and legend.

You can also purchase festive and traditional Chinese pastries from some of Singapore’s oldest confectioneries at Chinatown. One of them is Tong Heng, with generations of fans swearing by its diamond-shaped egg custard tarts, delicious pineapple tarts and crumbly egg rolls.

The best beverage to accompany all these New Year snacks, is of course, Chinese tea, and Chinatown is home to some of Singapore’s pioneer tea merchants including, Kwong Chen Beverage packs its premium but inexpensive tea in lovely tins, making them perfect as gifts.

People also flock to renowned establishments to stock up on festive snacks, pastries and other goodies for the holidays. An especially popular item is bak kwa (barbequed pork squares).

With this much in store around Chinese New Year, be it festive foods, souvenir shopping or lively events, this certainly is an exciting time to visit.

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