Chinese New Year: Special Singaporean customs for Spring Festival

World
Europe

Over 70 percent of the population in Singapore is ethnic Chinese, so Chinese New Year is well celebrated in the city-state. But how Singaporeans welcome the arrival of the lunar new year can be slightly different from the Chinese way. Our correspondent Miro Lu has more.

Lin Fang is a native Shanghainese who has been living in Singapore for more than 20 years. Chinese New Year is the most important holiday for her and her family.

Preparation starts with a visit to the plant nurseries. Lin has picked up the habit of decorating her house with fresh flowers and plants like Singaporeans. In Singapore and some southern parts of China, flower blossoms are believed to bring fortune, according to the popular Chinese saying Hua Kai Fu Gui, blossom flowers bring wealth.

PETER CHEOK SALES & MARKETING DIRECTOR, FAR EAST FLORA "Sales during Chinese New Year is a big jump from our normal season. It can be 3 times even 4 times (more than) what we normally do."

She also stocks up Chinese New Year cookies like the locals. Something that Lin didn't grow up with but her children do. Elizabeth and William were born and raised in Singapore, the only Chinese New Year they've ever known has been the Singaporean one. Although at their household, it's a bit of a mix and match.

XU YUAN LI ELIZABETH "The way we celebrate Chinese New Year is quite localized. We do eat cookies and we give oranges, which apparently doesn't happen in China. And we eat dumplings and we eat rice cake, and apparently, some of my Singaporean friends don't do that."

LIN FANG "During Chinese New Year, we prepare different dishes. I still keep some of our old traditions, old dishes, like we prepare the fish, we prepare Quan Jia Fu (a classic reunion dish from Shanghai), but we also pick up the habit of Lao Yu Sheng, those are very Singapore style."

MIRO LU SINGAPORE "Chinese people around the world may consume different dishes or have different customs when celebrating Chinese New Year. But these are minor details. The overall spirit of the festival remains the same. Miro Lu, CGTN, Singapore."