CNY around the world and in Singapore

I don't have pictures from the actual celebration, so have a look at these amazing pictures from around the word!

Although both of my favorite pictures come from Kuala Lumpur...

...have a look at no. 1, 29 and 31 as well :)

1 - Sentosa

29 - Marina Bay

31 - Marina Bay once more

An interesting post about "A Different Chinese New Year Celebration" in Singapore has nice old pictures, about a traditional component of CNY in Singapore that has disappeared: 

"Some traditions survive the test of time. Others disappear due to certain circumstances. Lion dances, angpows, Mandarin oranges and auspicious couplets have always been the items commonly seen in Chinese New Year celebrations in Singapore. More than 40 years ago, there was also another item deemed indispensable for the most important festival for the local Chinese. It was the firecracker."

Another post on the topic of CNY in Singapore is on "The celebrating of Spring in the greater town", which I like particularly for its pictures of the "goodies". The many round, gold/yellow/orange/red things, and the cakes, and fruits and other food items, that were actually on sale in Chinatown until the eve of CNY.

Btw on the topic of angpows ...

...or hongbaos, because I know that hongbao (紅包; pinyin: hóngbāo) is the Mandarin pronunciation, but I cannot find anything on angpows, and Cantonese is something else again, so I am going to assume that angpow is Hokkien.

Anyway angpow means red envelope or red packet. The red of the envelope symbolizes good luck and wards off evil spirits. The packet itself is a monetary gift, with the money inside the red envelope. It is given during holidays, such as, and most importantly, CNY, or other special occasions (weddings, the birth of a baby, graduation, etc.). It is mostly given within the family or at social gatherings.

It is such a big deal, that you can find guidelines online about who to and how much to give (case in point). But it is not just about the size of the amount. It is also about the digits. Because in Chinese there are a lot of homophones (and not homonyms!), any number that sounds like a bad word (four is pronounced like "death") are bad luck and therefore no-no (so 40, 400 and 444 are out)! Any number that sounds like a good word (eight sounds like "prosper", "fortune" or "wealth", double eight is "joy", nine sounds like "longevity" or "long lasting", but even number are always luckier...) is good luck so go ahead!


And for illustration, this is the angpow I have received from Mrs Tan. And it is also very similar to the one I gave to Mata!