Sheer Lunar-cy: Vietnamese Lunar New Year .....in Singapore

- February 18, 2020

If you read my previous articles on Tet, Vietnamese Lunar New Year) - here and here - (and if not, why not?) you’ll be aware that apart from a couple of Tet’s holed-up in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, I’m generally prone to fleeing Vietnam during the nation’s most important festival, having grabbed, literally, one of the last airline tickets out of the country. And this year was no exception.

Don’t get me wrong, I actually quite enjoy the Tet build-up every year in Vietnam: the fuzziness of good will, auspicious times and Vietnamese on their bestest behaviour. If you work in an office, everyone is way too busy munching on typical festive snacks and sloping off early for pre-Tet commitments to get much work done and you can generally lose yourself in the melee and grinding halt of work productivity. There’s an endless sea of makeshift flower shops along the streets, in markets and in parks, downtown public flower displays and huge pots of yellow chrysanthemums and apricot blossoms plonked outside homes and businesses for good luck.

There’s an infectious, buzz and air of excitement on the days leading up to Tet, leading up to a crescendo on New Year's Eve public fireworks and live performances in the city centre.

But then it all goes strangely flat. Even in 2020 in Saigon, shops, restaurants and businesses close for at least a week. Foreigners harp on about how refreshing it is to experience scant traffic on the streets and the city being deserted – most workers make the annual pilgrimage back to the countryside and the family home and those locals left behind tend to stay put feasting in their local neighbourhoods – but as there’s not much to see and do in town, there isn’t much point to being out and about!

So when your office is closed for seven days – as per official government regulations – and you’re handed seven days extra leave without even asking, taking the above into account and a dire fear of boredom setting in, once again, this Jaded Empress was off and away this Lunar New Year to ......Singapore, faster than you can say Chuc Mung Nam Moi!

Why Singapore? Well, dah, why not!! Apart from this Jaded Empress being obsessed with the city-state and a regular visitor every few months, Singapore is home to a huge Chinese community and the start of the Chinese Lunar calendar year is one of the biggest events here. Every year Singapore hosts several major bashes and celebratory events pre, during and post- the Chinese Lunar New Year.
Flying-in on the the last day of the lunar New Year, no sooner had I checked-in to my hotel then I hurriedly made my way over to Marina Bay Floating Platform and the River Hongbao Festival – regarded as Singapore’s leading and most classic Chinese New Year's Eve event, evolving as an integral classic of Singapore’s Lunar New Year celebrations and traditions – played out against the backdrop of the glittering Marina Bay skyline.....

and Singapore's iconic Marina Bay Sands Hotel......

Hosted throughout the Lunar New Year week, this beloved extravaganza - free to enter !! - presents an awe-inspiring display of Chinese cultures and traditions. As per Chinese custom, the lunar New Year is closely tied to the 12 Chinese Zodiac animals, hence the visual displays of mega-sized, hand-crafted lanterns depicting the 12 signs, especially for this Year of the Rat, the highlight being a dazzling 50m-long display of 20 lanterns.

...as well as familiar traditional Chinese characters –

Nightly entertainment covered interactive exhibits and games, amusement rides and an outdoor food street. On stage for the New Year’s Eve show – simultaneously transmitted on giant screens – live performances of a distinct Chinese nature ranged from opera singers and acrobats to lion dances.

And at midnight the eagerly-awaited, magically choreographed fireworks exploded in bursts of brilliant colours over the bay, watched by large crowds from the free viewing gallery - no tickets required here! Coruna virus? Meh!! Too busy enjoying ourselves!

Count your blessings in Bugis & Chinatown

On this first new day of a brand New Year, am off out to the Bugis neighbourhood, today even more vibrant than usual with the streets packed with locals, snapping-up essential good fortune trinkets (like the di rigueur waving cat) at street stalls and checking-out the Chinese Horoscopes for this Year of the Rat plastered up on boards near the temples for public consumption. Across the board literally, it’s looking extremely promising this year for us Oxen!

Locals were also busy praying for good luck at Bugis’s wall-to-wall Buddhist deity outlets, but most waited in long queues in the harsh midday sun clutching handfuls of burning incense to enter Kwan Im Thong Hood Cho Temple.

This traditional Chinese temple is one of Singapore’s most frequented and for devotees,of huge significance – praying here is believed to bring good fortune, especially on this first day of the Lunar New Year.

Then of course, am next off to Chinatown:, where else would I be, especially after missing the New Year celebrations last night! As I wandered the main streets, I noticed there appeared not so many folk out and about as expected on this important day… was the Chinese community too hungover, exhausted or scared to bits of the ~~Corona,~~ ahem, COVID-19 outbreak? Nope, rather everyone was at the local pagodas, praying for good health, wealth and luck in the coming year. So I joined them too: conveniently, Buddha Tooth Relic Temple-Museum is located just around the corner (at #288 South Bridge Road).

Although a relatively new temple founded in 2002, Buddha Tooth Relic now ranks as one of Singapore’s “must-see” cultural sites, renowned for its impressive collection of Buddhist artifacts and relics (including the sacred canine tooth of Buddha - hence the name). Within the stunningly ornate, high-ceilinged Hundred Dragons Hall....

a constant stream of devotees received New Year blessings from Buddhist Monks.
After paying a temple attendant SGD10 for a bowl filled with 10cent coins, I joined a slow procession around the Hundred Dragons Hall ,dropping a coin into every bowl placed below each of the One Hundred Buddha statues lining the walls....

..a merit-making deed that should (hopefully) reward me with more good luck and wealth.... hoorah!

Joining the rat pack, literally!

By the time I'd snapped-up some auspicious red lunar trinkets and decorations at the Festive Street Bazaar, dusk had descended– just in time to witness the China Town Street Light-up at 7pm along the main streets, but especially New Bridge Road and South Bridge Road. Among the dozens of hand-crafted sculpted lanterns representing the 12 zodiac animals, the main draw was a 12-metre centrepiece featuring the Golden Rat leading seven other rats atop a bed of gold coins, pink peonies and a massive ingot.

And streetlights featuring gold coins, flowers and New Year greetings dangling above Chinatown were pretty impressive too!

Even my temporary local neighbourhood, around Farrer Park MRT, boasted some pretty impressive streetlights for a relatively low-key residential area .....

In fact, everywhere, even down to the smallest detail, touches of Chinese New Year celebrations were plain to see...

Then in the first week of this Year of the Rat, I kept stumbling by chance on impromptu lion dances in town, including at super-glam mall, Ion Orchard, where a lion dance troupe pranced from one store to the next, bestowing prosperity and good luck on businesses as per Chinese tradition.

This even extended to a public lion dance performance at Gardens by the Bay...

True, I admit I'm mesmerised by lion dances, but after this festive overload, even I’ve had my fill for the year.

With Singapore’s free New Year entertainment and celebrations and constant buzz all week – not to mention the par the course outstanding street food and shopping – I could well be tempted back again for another lunar-tic Tet great escape!

(Want to read more on my adventures in Singapore? Have a peek at the Jade(d) Empress chronicles, here and here !)