Ushering in the Year of the Rat

When I arrived in Singapore, preparations for the Lunar New Year (which began Feb. 6 and lasts 15 days) were underway. The city was blanketed with red lanterns, paper pineapples and dragons, mandarin orange trees, and here and there, images of…mice? I was sure they were mice, and not rats, because they had round ears and cute little button noses, and some of them even looked distinctly Mickey-esque.
Turns out the word for ‘rat’ and ‘mouse’ is the same in Chinese. As rats are gross and mice aren’t as bad, might as well go with the mouse décor. So, having completed the Times Square takeover, Disney has turned its attention to this ancient holiday.

Below is a pic of one of the orange trees you see everywhere. And one of some lanterns in my neighborhood (if you look carefully you can see some green Mickey action).





Around town, people were stocking up on decorations for their homes:





And goodies in red tubs were everywhere, from IKEA to streetcorners…



People also buy new clothing for the new year…



With all of these preparations, we figured the holiday itself was going to be something big. We asked some other expats what people do for the New Year, and the answer was: leave. Which we did- here’s a picture taken while waiting for our flight to Vietnam. We went the budget route and were instructed at the Singapore airport to “Enjoy the Difference”...? I’m not sure flying cheapo was an auspicious way to start the new year.



But before we left, we tried to enjoy what we could of the holiday.

There are many superstitions connected to “CNY.” For example, I’ve read that its best not to wash your hair on the first day of the new year as you will wash away good luck. Another belief is that it is important to carefully select the first visitor to your home in the new year. If the first visitor is rich and prestigious, then the household will have good fortune in the new year. Needless to say, no one invited us over.

But we found our own way to celebrate. One night, when a visitor was in town, we tried yu sheng (raw fish salad), which is eaten at this time of year because of something to do with the word for fish in Cantonese sounding like the word for prosperity. It’s basically a plate of fish, shredded vegetables, sesame seeds, a sweet sauce, and some fried noodles. The tradition is for all to gather around the table and mix the shredded bits by tossing them up into the air using chopsticks (see "before" picture below), while exclaiming wishes, e.g. a healthy and wealthy new year. I wished for a Democratic President.



We also went to Chinatown on New Year’s Eve.



The streets were mobbed with people buying holiday items at discounted prices. The candy stalls were popular:





And there were lots of oranges for sale. Apparently, when you visit someone’s home during this time, you present them with two oranges. When you leave, they give you two oranges. Given that when you give your oranges away, you get oranges back, I’m not really sure why people were buying so many – seems like you could get through the holiday on two.





I read that this holiday is also called Nian, after the legend of the Nian monster. At the start of the year, the monster came down from the mountains to hunt villagers. To scare it away, the villagers would beat on drums, burn bamboo, and light firecrackers.
Perhaps this large light display of creepy crawly babies was also intended to scare away the monster?



In case that didn’t work, they also lit off fireworks on New Year’s Eve. Some of the fireworks seem to have been aimed at an apartment building… maybe it was a landlord trying to scare away a bad tenant monster.

Ok, I suppose fireworks are a good place to end. Vietnam pics to come.