Happy 2009 to all of you!!! Woohoo..after a long break i am finally here to blog again ^^ Thanks to all your support toward G4 Station making me kind of busy and thus unable to blog, just joking =DOk back to the topic, let me tell you more about chinese lunar new year which is happening in less then a month time.

Chinese New Year or Spring Festival is the most important of the traditional Chinese holidays. It is sometimes called the Lunar New Year, especially by people outside China. The festival traditionally begins on the first day of the first lunar month (Chinese: 正月; pinyin: zhēng yuè) in the Chinese calendar and ends on the 15th; this day is called Lantern Festival. Chinese New Year’s Eve is known as Chúxī (除夕, abbr. for 年除夕 Niánchúxī, Chúxì in Taiwan). It literally means “Year-pass Eve”.

Usually in Singapore, Chinese new year’s eve will be a reunion day within family. This is the time for family members who are unable to see each other due to busy schedule, to get together and have a nice meal. For my reunion, we will be having a steamboat as dinner as always =.= This is some of the chinese food you will expect to see on the menu ^^ yummy!!

Getting hungry? There is more to come ^^ Before the start of my reunion dinner, there is this traditional culture of “lao yu sheng”. Yu sheng plays on the homonyms where yu means “fish” but enunciated appropriately, it also means “abundance”; and shengmeans literally “raw” but enunciated appropriately, it means “life”. Thus Yusheng implies “abundance of wealth and long life”. In Cantonese it is known as lo sheng with lo also meaning “tossing up good fortune”. The tossing action is called lo hei, which means to “rise” (hei), again a reference to a thriving business and thus its popularity with businessmen during the New Year. This is a pics of what we are tossing around lol

After the dinner, we will usually head down to chinatown to purchase some chinese new year snack, goodies and at the same time, join in the countdown party there. Different snack have different meaning but to me who cares! It is all food lol but for your benefit wise i will list down some of the snack and what is their meaning when we eat it.

 The most important snack during chinese new year will be Bak kwa, yuk gohn, rou gan 肉干.

Well, it is chinese salty-sweet meat square and taste very very good. It can be made from pork, chicken, beef or even lamb or even from seafood. Bakkwais believed to have originated from a meat preservation and preparation technique used in ancient China that is still practiced in places with Hoklo (Hokkien) influence. Traditionally, bakkwawas made using leftover meats from festivals and banquets. They were preserved with sugar and salt, and then kept for later consumption, and was the preferred method at a time when refrigeration was not available. The meat from these celebrations is trimmed of the fat, sliced, marinated and then smoked. After smoking, the meat is cut into small pieces and stored for later.

Next, we have the pineapple tart. This is also one of the highlight of Chinese new year. Considered a “festive cookie”, pineapple tarts are usually consumed during the Chinese New Year season.

Typical shapes include a flat, open tart topped withpineapple jam under a lattice of pastry, rolls filled with jam that are open at the ends and jam-filled spheres.

Pineapple tarts take up lots of hours to make as there is the cooking of pineapple jam (which can take hours) and preparation of pastry followed by baking. As in hokkien, the word pineapple translate to “ong-lai” which mean wealth come, thus it is a must to have pineapple tart during Chinese New Year.

Nian gao, Rice cake, Year cake or Chinese new year‘s cake is a food prepared from glutinous rice and consumed in Chinese cuisine. While it can be eaten all year round, traditionally it is most popular during Chinese New Year. It is considered good luck to eat nian gao during this time because “nian gao” is a homonym for “every year higher and higher.” 年糕 – 年高

Ok i will stop here and continue what is going to happen for the first day of Chinese new year. Early in the morning, i will be awaken by the rowdy noise from the lion dance performance all over the island. This is also another tradition that is pass down generation by generation. It is said that the noise from the lion dance and the chinese cracker can ward off evil and thus bring good luck to the family.

When i am fully awake, i will change to a new set of new year’s clothing and off to my relatives and friends house to visit them and to ”pai nian” which i can collect lots of red packet, “ang-pow” or “hong-bao”. “Red Packet” or “Laisee” is a good old Chinese tradition where small gifts such as money is given during holidays and special ocassions. The red packet which often has a gold chinese luck symbol imprinted on it symbolises good luck, health and good fortune, due to the fact that the colours red and gold are considered to be a lucky. It is also believed be good luck to keep some money in it, close at hand in order to be blessed by it’s good fortune.

I’m ashamed.

As a Singaporean, I’ve never been interested in guide books about our own country (Who reads guidebooks of their own country anyway? I bet most of you don’t!). Jody, one of our friendly staff has donated a series of Citiescape of Asian countries from Lonely Planet, 2006 Edition.

Singapore Citiescape - Lonely Planet

Not exactly a very comprehensive guide, but it covers and has vivid photos of Singapore, and the rest of the asian countries like Beijing, Delhi, Ho Chi Minh, Sydney (huh?) and more.

Supreme Court - Colonial District (Lonely Planet), lovely photo isn't it?

What particularly caught me was the itinerary that was listed behind by Mat Oakley, an expat that stayed in Singapore for almost two years,

Start early, amid the chatter of an old kopitiam (breakfast and coffeeshop), for hot sweet kopi, runny eggs and kaya toast, slapped onto your table without ceremony. Once you’re loaded with cholesterol, take a stroll in the magnificent Botanic Gardens, then along Orchard Road before the crowds hit.

Head down into the MRT, up one stop to Little India and out into another world of grubby streets and food markets, and dip your hands into a curry lunch – fiery fuel for a walk to the mosques, carpet sellers and coffee houses of Kampong Glam, the Muslim Quarter.

After a cardamom coffee or hot mint tea, take a bus to Chinatown and browse through the antique shops, street markets and teashops. A few steamed dumpling and tea from a Chinatown cafe, then leave the city for the green centre, and Singapore’s zoo and peerless Night Safari.

After seeing the sunset with the leopards, do a taxi race down the flawless, tree-lined expressway to Newton Circus, the city’s most famous hawker centre. Bursting with seafood and beer, take another taxi to Raffles Hotel for a cocktail.

Energy permitting, dance your way into the early hours with the beautiful people at Zouk, Singapore’s thumping megaclub.

Matt Oakley

Well I couldn’t put it better in words than Matt. And take note all these locations that are mentioned apart from the Zoo are very, very, very close to G4 Station. So if you’re coming and need help in directions, feel free to ask our frontdesk staff for help.

They’ll probably point a direction and tell you you can even walk there for some of the destination mentioned above, seeya soon!