Chinese New Year

We got back into Singapore in the beginning of January.
The first few weeks were spent house hunting.
And before we knew it a holiday was upon us.

Chinese New Year is huge in Singapore.
It's a holiday celebrated in late January, early February.
People really get into the spirit of New Years here.
They spend weeks preparing and shopping for food, decorating their homes and cleaning.
One of the places they do a lot of that shopping is in Chinatown.
Naturally, Chris and I had to go and see what all the fuss was about!

  

CNY is more about family than anything else.
People spend the days and evenings eating traditional Chinese meals, visiting family, and eating some more.
To them it's a time to purge everything from the old year, to ask for forgiveness and to renew connections with everyone dear to them.

This year also happens to be the year of the horse (my lucky year!!!).
Chinatown had a huge horse lantern display down the main road.

I also got to participate in lo hei at a function at work.
A bunch of us stood around a bowl of mixed shredded veggies, fish, and cinnamon powder, and on the count of 3 shoved our chopsticks into the mixture and tried to throw it up as high as possible to bring us good fortune.
I love when I can learn something that opens my mind up to a whole new way of looking at the world!