Singapore Chinese New Year

Who first invented "yu sheng" and how did it come about? Why is it taboo to sweep the house on Chinese New Year day? Is it true that if you counted the kumquats on the plant, they would fall?

We think we know a lot about Chinese New Year. .. but do we? It's fun to know the stories behind its many customs - especially the ones that are still with us today. It's also fun to know how some customs still remain with us, but in slightly different form.

So let's start with a subject that's close to everybody's heart - especially if you're Singaporean. Food.

There's one dish synonymous with Chinese New Year: "Yu Sheng" or raw fish salad. Apparently, it's a true-blue Singapore original. One day in the 1960s, it is said, the four leading, and most famous, Cantonese chefs of Singapore got together. Their mission: to create a dish that would be ideal for celebrating Chinese

New Year and, more importantly, bring in a tidy profit.

Their solution: a dish comprised of ingredients that were cheap, easily available, tasted well when mixed together, and colourful. So "Yu Sheng" was born! And it's still with us today.

The original recipe made use of "ikan parang", a common local fish. Over the years, however, the fish has become scarce and expensive.

So these days, other fish, including salmon, has replaced it, and among those with a bigger budget, even abalone. By the way, "Lo Hei", the other name of the dish, combines two words "Lo" (meaning "toss") and "Hei" (meaning "high"). Therefore the higher the salad is tossed, the greater the chance of your wishes coming true. That's why people stand with chopsticks raised high when they toss their "Yu Sheng" and loudly proclaim their wishes!

Another common New Year food is the "nian gao" or "new year cake". Because of its sweetness and stickiness, the cake has an amusing story behind it People believed that during the Chinese New Year period, certain household "gods" went up to heaven to report about the goings-on, good or bad, that they had witnessed in the house during the year. So, people would put out "nian gao" as offerings to these gods in order that their mouths would be glued shut.

The "nian gao" - it self has changed with the times; traditional a round dark brown cake wrapped in dried leaves. Today's updated "nian gao" comes in other forms such as an ingot, or a swimming carp or goldfish, coloured red and trimmed with gold leaf for added luck.

Good luck is also at the centre of a custom that many of - still endure today

- CNY house cleaning basically the idea is "Out with the old, in with the new." The interior of the house and the garden gates and fences, receives a new coat of paint, and a general spring cleaning is carried out. When you get rid of the dirt and rubbish and unwanted things, you also get rid of bad luck it' believed. It also extends to the person; that' why we wear brand-new clothes on Chinese New Year day.

Another sort of "rubbish" is also swept away during this period People make an effort to resolve grudges and settle debts, as it is considered inauspicious to bring this sort of "outstanding matters" to the new year.

And once Chinese New Year day dawns, sweeping becomes a taboo. As the broom is considered an inauspicious object, using it on this special day is very bad luck. On top of that, you might even sweep away the good fortune that is already in the house!

Because of this, every effort is made to complete all cleaning by the stroke of midnight on Chinese New Year's eve.

Many CNY decorations our parents would be familiar with are still with us today, but updated for the 21st century. Couplets or paper squares bearing auspicious words such as "good fortune", "wealth", and "longevity", still decorate the house, but now we also have Chinese paper cuttings and tasselled banners, and plastic cut outs of Hello Kitty and Mickey Mouse in CNY garb spewing greetings!

Pineapples, whose name in Chinese sounds like "arrival of good fortunes", are still used as festive ornaments, except now they are gold-plated plastic instead of actual fruit. You would also see gold ingots, tradition symbols of wealth and prosperity, sitting in all their shiny plastic glory, and ribbons of red plastic firecrackers emitting electronic wheezes and "bangs". The legend went that a monster used to terrorize village folk in ancient China: However, the beast was afraid of the colour red and loud noises. So the people lit firecrackers to scare it away. And that was how firecrackers became a fixture of CNY celebrations ever since.

Another familiar ornament is the kumquat plant. The fruits, with their bright yellow skins, were thought to symbolize "gold in abundance." People believed that counting the kumquats would cause them to fall- that's a misconception. Since the kumquats represented abundance, to count them means you are placing a limit on your own abundance and prosperity. That's the actual reason why counting them is discouraged.

However, when it comes to the number of one's descendants and family members, the

Chinese recognize no limits. The larger the family, the greater the blessings, it is believed.

That's why the CNY reunion dinner has remained such an important event through thousands of years. All family members make it a point to attend this great feast and symbol of family unity, including those who live overseas.

In the past, family members would take great pride in the food preparation for the reunion dinner, and would labour, often for days, in the kitchen. Today, however, it is common for families to hold their reunion dinners at a restaurant. Whatever the case, there are certain traditional dishes which are always served; these include the black moss with dried oysters (for prosperity and good fortune), fish (for all manner of abundance), Lo Hei, and prawns (whose Chinese name "ha" sounds like laughter, and thus represents happiness). !

During the reunion dinner, the elders would hand out lucky "hong baos" to the younger generation, and all lights the house would be switched on until midnight to ensure the arrival of good fortunes. The young ones would stay up late to welcome the New Year, this helps bring all sorts of blessings, including longevity for their parents and elders. The adults would "open the table" for all-night mahjong, and, in turn, help to increase good fortune with their joyous revelries.

Here are a couple more customs to round things off: why are there oranges everywhere during the festive season? Because the fruits are considered symbols of wealth, "orange" in Chinese having the same sound as "wealth". The oranges are given and received as a form of well-wishing and are displayed for good luck. Finally, it is considered bad luck to break anything during CNY, especially so if the object is something fragile, like a bowl. To the Chinese, bowls represent one's job or career, as in one's "rice bowl". So a broken bowl could imply a job lost. Should you break something during the festive season, all is not lost. The phrase "luo di kai hua" is believed to save the day. Roughly translated, it means "when the whole object hits the floor, the object would blossom". When promptly said over the shattered object, the saying has the power to turn a bad event into something good and more fortunate.