Gong Xi Fa Cai - Celebrating the Lunar New Year

Prince once sang “party like it’s 1999” but we’re still waiting for his version of party like it’s 4712. 

We are in the Eve of Chinese New Year (CNY) as we write this and preparing to ring in 4712. Chinese New Year’s Eve is much like the Countdown in Times Square with festivities and fireworks as a new lunar year arrives.

The CNY decorations in Chinatown

Raegen and I just missed the CNY national holiday last year as we arrived a week late so we were anxious to learn more about the traditions and celebrations around this major holiday not only to educate our eager One Degree North readers but to be able to share in the excitement happening all around us. When your calendar is 4712 years old there are a lot of traditions and information to share so we’ll give you the “Chinese New Year for Dummies” version.

It’s 4712 - Year of the Goat

This year is the Year of the Goat (or sheep or ram depending on who you ask.) The discrepancy lies in the fact that the Chinese word for goat/sheep/ram is the same-  a hoofed, four-legged animal with horns. Or a Raegen calls them- art.

According to tradition, this year is going to be a bumpy one if you were born in the year of the cow/buffalo, ram/goat/sheep, dragon or dog. If you’re wondering what year you were born in click here. If you were born in those years you can do a few things to help smooth that bumpy year. The first is to keep reading One Degree North religiously. The second would be to hightail it down to your local Buddhist temple to pray, light incense and borrow coins for luck (although you have to return them next year.)

The celebration of Chinese New Year last for 15 days. The 7^th day of the New Year is considered everyone’s birthday. Yes you would share your birthday with every member of your family! Traditional Chinese still celebrate this way while the younger generation has started reveling in the western tradition of celebrating on the day you were born.

Lion Dance

There are many tales on how the lion dance came to be but the version we heard that there was an evil and fierce monster, Nian, who terrorized villages and kidnapped children. One day a lion scared him and chased him away. The village didn't have a lion so the villagers fashioned a costume that looked like a lion to share Nian away. Legend says that the loud noises (drums or firecrackers) helped scare away Nian and that he was afraid of the color red (hence the plethora of red CNY decorations.) This ritual is performed every CNY as a way to chase away the bad spirits and luck. Businesses and residents hire lion dancers to come into their home or place of business to scare away bad luck and spirits so they can start anew. Here’s a video of the lion dance at Raegen’s office.  

Ang Pao – Red Packets

While you’re more likely to get a Starbucks gift card than cold hard cash during the holidays in the States, it’s the norm to hand out red envelopes of cash for CNY. Elders give out red packets or Ang Pao, to their younger relatives and businesses hand them out to their employees. These envelopes should contain the most pristine bills you can find (there’s a long line at the bank to get crisp, freshly printed bills) and the denomination inside should end in an 8 which is THE lucky number in the Chinese culture. If you’re feeling generous, $88 is a great gift but $18 or $28 will do. Never give an odd number as that’s unlucky.

Spring Cleaning

Even though there is no such thing as ‘spring’ in Singapore it is a tradition before the New Year to clean every square inch of your house to get rid of the bad luck from the previous year. When we say spring cleaning, we’re talking about cleaning out every closet, scrubbing floors and then some. I’m sure Clorox loves this time of year.

This is also the time of year to buy new things for good luck. It’s amazing how many shiny new pairs of shoes and unscathed handbags you see on the train this time of year. The saying is ‘spend a small fortune to bring a big fortune in.’

Food

There are plenty of foods that symbolize CNY but the most prominent one is the orange. During the holiday if you go to someone’s house you would bring two oranges and hand them to the host. This signifies you passing your good luck to the host. On the way out the host would pass you two oranges returning the favor and passing on their good luck.

A Singapore favorite for the New Year is prosperity salad. This salad was created by four Singaporean chefs to bring people together to celebrate outside of their homes. The salad recipe varies but consists of ingredients such as carrots, orange rind, pomelo, salmon, cabbage and peppers. The tradition is that everyone at the table uses their chopsticks to toss the salad into the air. The higher you can get your carrots, the better luck you have. Yes, it’s just as messy as you think just check out the video below.

Some of the other seasonal favorites include abalone, sea cucumbers, shark fin soup (although not as common anymore as it’s frowned upon,) bird nest soup, pineapple tarts, pumpkin seeds, glutinous rice cake, unshelled peanuts and Raegen's favorite bakkwa, a Chinese smoked pork jerky.

With that we will wish you Gong Xi Fa Ca, which is a CNY saying which loosely means may you be prosperous!

Happy Trails,

Amy & Raegen

PS: We encourage you to wear red on Wednesday and Thursday for good luck. 

A little slice of home through breaking bread

Having been in Singapore for a year, we understand what it’s like to be away from home. You miss the food, the sights, the smells and the people.

Speaking of people, Amy and I are lucky that we have met some incredible people. We were able to join up with one of our favorite couples to host a group of sailors from the USS Makin Island, a Wasp-class amphibious assault ship, as part of the American Association’s Home Hospitality program. This program allows you as an American to open your home (or host a group at a restaurant) to provide them with a good meal, American sense of humor and hospitality.

Our group hosted seven sailors (six men and one gal). We asked them if they had any special requests and some of them included mint chocolate chip ice cream, potato salad and deviled eggs to name a few. 

We shared stories of the world, talked about career ambitions and how their view of the world has changed since being enlisted. (If anyone is involved in ranch management or organic cattle our pal Richard is looking to get into that industry when he gets home this month. Email us!)

I must say the night was eye opening.  A few things that I learned throughout the evening:

• They can be on a boat for up to six months without being on land. This group left San Diego in July 2014 and was sent to Yemen to wait offshore in case the tension escalated, provide aid when a storm hit the Philippines and assist in the search for the Air Asia plane.
• Sometimes they will not see the sun for days (or weeks) as only certain people are allowed on the deck.
• The drinking age is much younger in Singapore than the U.S., thus some of our guests were happy to enjoy a well-deserved ice cold beer. 
• The ship is about 80% men, 20% women and despite being against the rules, many people couple up right when they get on the ship. 
• The ship is totally self-contained with hospital, police, gym, grocery store, and anything else you can think about. 
• At dinner they did not eat as much meat as I thought they would, but they drank almost as much beer as expected.
• Singapore is one of the few countries that still allows for Home Hospitality. 

We're both honored to have a long line of family members who have served our country and while it was a small part in comparison we were happy to support our troops.

These brave men and women are finishing up their tour of duty on the USS Makin Island (follow them on Facebook by clicking here) and heading back to port in San Diego. I hope that those of you reading this stateside will welcome them and the rest of our soldiers with the hospitality, grateful hearts and support that they deserve. They are spending their prime years floating in the middle of ocean for our country, for our freedom. We look forward to hosting the next group in Singapore!

Thank you to our Veterans for your service.

Until then,

Raegen and Amy

PS- Thank you for those of you who have been our loyal readers. We mark one year in Singapore on 7 February (Singapore time) and it has been quite an adventure. We have learned so much but there is still so much to do, see and experience. As always, email us if there’s anything you’d like to learn about.