Twice the Holiday Fun

Gong Xi Fa Cai! Happy Valentine's Day!

The beginning of Chinese New Year was February 14th this year so the Dean family celebrated both holidays over the 4-day weekend. It's fairly easy to coordinate since the Chinese tend to emphasize good luck colors like red and pink in their celebration.

While Singapore prepared for the Year of the Tiger there were obvious signs of an impending holiday. For starters, traffic has been awful for the past 10 days. I have no explanation except that leading up to New Year's, the Chinese traditionally will buy new furnishings for their homes and new clothes to wear for the holiday. All I know is that it has taken us longer than usual to get everywhere, especially on weekends.

I made a routine trip to the wet market this week and discovered "holiday pricing" when the fish guy charged me $3 more per kilogram for my prawns than usual. I even challenged him, just in case he was giving me the expat price and his response was, "it's Chinese New Year. Prices higher." Naturally. I should have asked when his prices would go back down so I would know when to return.

At SAS, Megan's class exchanged Valentines but didn't dwell on Chinese New Year much. Elizabeth's class barely acknowledged Valentines and celebrated the New Year instead. Emily and I went up to school Friday afternoon to watch a Dragon Dance with the preschoolers and after the huge paper dragon, his handlers and percussion section left, the classes picked up their own drums, cymbals and any noise maker around and paraded through the SAS campus while yelling,  "Gong Xi Fa Cai!" (Happy New Year!). The Chinese believe dragons and loud noises will scare off evil spirits. And as it turns out, 3 and 4-year olds are great noise makers!

Saturday morning Elizabeth woke up a little feverish so we stayed close to home and watched the Opening Ceremony of the Winter Olympics. Megan kept her picture atlas handy so we could frantically flip through the pages to find each country as their athletes appeared. Brian took Megan to Chinatown later in the day and Megan picked out Valentine/New Year goodies for her sisters. Megan and Emily received their own cheongsams and since Elizabeth already had her Chinese dress, she now owns a gold waving cat. The new battery-powered kitty waves constantly so I'm sure it will bring good luck to our home. The cat sits on our bookshelf and Emily waves at it every time she walks past. I can't believe we lived here more than a year before getting our very own "beckoning cat." Our Asian home feels more complete now. Saturday evening we saw fireworks right next to our condo in celebration of the beginning of the New Year festivities and I appreciated being able to see them from the dining room window. I can handle that kind of holiday involvement.

We had a low-key Valentine's Day and I enjoyed making heart-shaped French toast for breakfast and decorating festive cupcakes for our holiday dessert, thanks to the treats and decorations that Brian's parents and Tonia mailed us. Thank you! I suppose we favored Chinese decorations and American sweets during our festivities. After trying Chinese desserts, it's not a difficult choice. After dinner, the girls dressed in their cheongsams and lit sparklers down by the pool. We loved combining the traditions!

Chinese New Year provided a 4-day weekend so it was nice to have a few days to enjoy some peace and quiet on the island. I looked out toward the restaurants on the river yesterday and only saw one place open. It's amazing to see Singapore actually shut down for a holiday. Brian and I took Megan to a BBQ with friends last night and we were happy to go out for an evening after being lazy for a few days.

Today Elizabeth was 100% again so we packed up the kids and went to the zoo, apparently with the rest of the island population. It was the most crowded we had ever seen the zoo but we had a nice day visiting the animals. Life will return to normal tomorrow when the girls return to school and Brian heads to work.

The Chinese celebration of the Lunar New Year lasts for a couple weeks so I look forward to seeing signs of the holiday around town for the next several days. For us, we will keep our pineapples hanging and the cat's paw will be busy so we look forward to good fortune in the Year of the Tiger!

Tiger Made From Flowers at the Singapore Zoo