As a child, the Chinese Lunar New year was “the” highlight of the year. There was no school, we could stay up all night, there was unlimited food and sweets everywhere, every adult we met would give us little red packets of money, cool long lost cousins would turn out of nowhere and we would play and watch TV all day long. Most importantly, there would be no mention of homework. It was like Disneyland every year.

As with most festivals, Lunar New Year would tend to lose its magic as we get older, especially when we have to start helping out, and conversations with long lost cousins go from who gets to be super duper Ultraman to who is making more money. Celebrations this year for my family was especially quiet as my grandmother just passed away and we would be in mourning for three years. We are, however, still allowed to celebrate a toned down version of it.

This is a Singaporean traditional Lunar New Year salad called “Yu Sheng”, or raw fish, to symbolise “Nian Nian You Yu”, or years and years of excess. 

There is an elaborate ritual to eating this dish, one of which involves getting the whole family together to mix the ingredients and shout auspicious phrases. Through years of experience, I have learnt that this is one of the most inefficient ways of mixing vegetables with dressing as the dish inevitably ends up being too sweet on one end and sour on the other.

As we are still in mourning, there would be no elaborate four-hour prayer session to the Heavenly God to welcome the New Year. We had a short prayer to the God of the Earth to ask for simple blessings instead, and instead of the usual stacks and stacks of incense paper money, this is all we are burning for the year… all folded by me, hence the intricate craftsmanship.

The paper money is burnt, prayers sent out, all we can do now is keep our fingers crossed.

The big day itself. At first light, we would take turns to offer tangerines and blessings to our parents, wishing them good health and good luck. In return, they would give us red packets and a short friendly lecture on working hard and being nice. “Friendly” being the operative word because harsh words and scolding are considered to be inauspicious. Doing chores and running errands are all disallowed too. During the New Year, one is only allowed to have fun and nothing else, just like in college. Also, notice my parents are both in green, not the traditional auspicious red. This is because they were both born in the Year of the Rat.

Being in mourning also means no visiting of relatives, which also means a substantial loss of income for us kids. To cheer us up, my dad decided to take us to the “River Hongbao” festival organised by the various clans in Singapore. Since young, we have always been too busy visiting relatives and/or playing to go for events such as this, and I always thought they were quite lame. But being in the thick of the action, getting squashed with the crowd, and watching young attractive women haggle with storekeepers does get me into the festive mood and put a smile on my face.

Here’s wishing all Gong Xi Fa Cai - Happy Chinese New Year!