Singapore Adventure: Happy New Year

Well, a little bit late for this Blog title, you may think. Haven’t Ana and Simon celebrated their New Year still in Europe before moving all the way to Singapore? Well, they have – 2012 came to an end and 2013 was off to a good start. However, the year of the dragon had not yet ended and the year of the snake was not yet upon them. Wait a minute, year of the dragon? Is this some weird craziness? Well, technically, it isn’t. The “Western calendar” (or Gregorian calendar to be speaking more technically) follows the solar cycle and this system established many years ago, anchoring our years to the day when Jesus Christ was born (or somewhere around it). This is largely followed everywhere in the world, mostly for business and practicality reasons. Culturally, it is a whole other story. Most cultures actually follow a lunar calendar (the Islamic calendar is the best example) or a mix of lunar and solar calendar (that is, magically, called lunisolar) and thus, their New Year also is on another day then the Western calendar.

A lot of technicalities but to make a long story short, the Lunar New Year happens in February and this is largely celebrated in Southeast Asia, especially by the (ethnic) Chinese – thus, most people say “Happy Chinese New Year”.

...Including the Singapore Traffic Authority

Since Ana and Simon have never been to Southeast Asia, this was really a truly great cultural experience for them. First of all, already weeks before, there was a lot of decoration in red, not only across Chinatown. Red is supposed to be a good luck color and scaring away evil spirits.

Decoration of a street in Chinatown

A nice shop in Chinatown

People on the street would be wishing each other “Happy Chinese New Year, if I don’t see you in the next days” just as you would hear that with “Merry Christmas if we will not meet before December 25^th” anywhere in the US or Europe. Suddenly, there are “CNY sales” that advertise many great discounts, e.g. some new flat screen TV for SGD 888. The number eight is the “good luck” number. So there is some suspicion coming into the game. There were also fireworks that we could see from our balcony. Chinatown is this quarter lighted up in the foreground

Chinese New Year is the most important festival in China where most of the people have a whole week off. Literally, hundreds of millions of people travel home for that period which slows down business in the whole region (something that Ana truly appreciated). She had three days off – Friday, Monday and Tuesday and since Simon also had Friday and Monday off, they could enjoy some time together. They traveled to Malaysia and since this country also has a sizeable (ethnic) Chinese population, the New Year celebrations continued in Kuala Lumpur (more on the trip on another blog entry).

Around Chinese New Year, there would also be a number of lion dances. The lion dance will be conducted by Chinese Martial Art Schools (it does require a high sense of coordination) and follow a rather stringent choreography. There would be lion dances at malls, at Ana & Simon’s apartment and also at INSEAD. The first day after the “week off” for many Chinese employees, there would also be red envelops with money and movie tickets distributed at Mercer’s Singapore office.

Lion dance at our apartment building

The lion in front of our reception

So less than two months after Christmas, Ana and Simon could enjoy another major celebration and quite enjoyed it. They truly hope that you enjoy the pictures posted here. The new year is the year of the Snake.