Singapore Experience V – Chinese New Year

Being in England, observing Chinese New Year is not really a big deal for those outside of the Chinese culture. However in Singapore, it surrounds you and you can’t help but be a part of it, from beautiful decorations to the consistent fireworks that fill the sky, I could tell that I too would be celebrating the start of the ‘Year of the Snake’. Those of us with buddies from NUS were mostly invited to partake in familial celebrations, but for the few of us who didn’t have buddies, we decided to take a trip to the Marina Bay area to revel in a festival taking place along the Formula 1 track.

Upon arriving, the area was bustling with people, and I was struck by the large, illuminated figures decorating the grounds, and entering the festival, we were greeted by numerous food stalls cooking up delicious Chinese dishes, stalls selling traditional Chinese crafts and just an area that was beautifully and elegantly decorated. As many of you know, the Chinese Zodiac is represented by numerous animals, and so your year of birth is marked by an animal – for me I was born in the year of the ram. In the large courtyard, as part of the festival there were large inflatable animals for each year of the zodiac, each complete with star sign-esque readings – none of which were particularly optimistic, but hey it was all part of the experience!

There was a live performance, complete with singing and dancing, delicately performed, traditional shadow puppet shows and other artistic installations.

It was an exciting experience, to be able to partake and enjoy a vital portion of the Chinese culture, and if you are visiting Singapore over the Chinese New Year period (February), I would definitely recommend going along to a celebration, just to get a feel of the vibrance and excitement that comes with the season, and is often not something we are privy to in Western society.

This festival was topped off by a stroll over the Helix bridge onto the Marina Bay Sands vicinity, to just take in the twinkling lights of the Singaporean night sky.