‘Yuan Xiao Jie’

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Happy ‘Yuan Xiao Jie’

Today is Yuan Xiao Jie. This festival, which falls on the 15th day of the first lunar month (March the 3rd) this year, marks the first full moon of the year and the end of the Chinese New Year. In China, it is also known as the Lantern Festival, and Chinese Valentine’s Day. The festival dates back over 2,000 years to the Han Dynasty.

I don’t know what it is like in China now, but according to history, in the olden days, young people took to the streets, enjoying the colourful and beautifully designed lanterns on display, and hoped for a chance to meet their potential partner. Games like solving riddles, and vibrant dragon dances add to the vibrant atmosphere of the occasion.

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People eat ‘tangyuan’ (sweet rice balls), with various fillings, symbolizing family reunion and happiness.

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Outside of China, the festival is not as popularly celebrated. In Singapore, grassroot leaders in each housing estate might organise an event to mark the end of the Chinese New Year. Families might gather for a meal in the evening, but the meal is not as elaborate, or as important as the reunion dinner.

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Christmas Lights

Earlier in the week, I went downtown to Orchard Road, to have a look at the Christmas lights.

Orchard Road is a busy shopping belt in Singapore. Along the, roughly, 2 km road, are buildings after buildings, of shopping malls. You will find all the big brand names here. These cater mostly to the well heeled locals and tourists who can afford to spend without consideration. People like me don’t go to Orchard road for shopping.

On Christmas Eve, the street will be closed for a street party. From now till the eve, people from all corners of the island will come to take in the sights of the lights and Christmas decorations. It was still not too crowded when we were there. But, in a week or two – nearer the actual day, Orchard road will be very busy. There will be throngs of people coming to take in the Christmas lights and decorations, and to soak in the festive atmosphere.

The malls are all decked out with Christmas lights and decorations. Christmas carols play non-stop in the malls giving the atmosphere an air of festivity. Maybe that will entice shoppers to spend a bit more on gifts.

This year’s Christmas lights and decors are not as elaborate as previous years. They are simple, but are still nice.

Some Christmas decorations along Orchard Road

A mini fair

Street performances

Some night shots of the buildings in Orchard road

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Mid-Autumn Festival

Today, the fifteen day of the eighth lunar month, is Mid-Autumn Festival, or Zhongqiu Jie (中秋节). It is also known as Mooncake Festival, and Lantern Festival. This festival is celebrated primarily in China, started some 2,000 years ago, with significant observances in Taiwan, Hong and Macau. When immigrants came to South-eat Asia, they brought the festival with them. Now Chinese communities in countries like Malaysia, Singapore, and Vietnam celebrate the Lantern Festival too, albeit in a smaller way.

Celebrations on this day include display of lanterns, solving riddles, songs and dances, and eating of moon-cakes. Moon-cakes are Chinese pastries filled with bean paste, or lotus paste.

Through the years, as people got more creative, the lanterns, and moon-cakes became more fanciful. And like most festivals and rituals of old, these days the event is very commercialised. Nowadays, few people know the origin and the story behind the celebration.

Over here in Singapore, the festival is marked by displays of lanterns in Chinatown, the Jurong Gardens and Gardens by the bay. In the Gardens by the Bay, besides the display of lanterns, there is a mini fair. There are also stage performances of cultural songs, dance and instrumentals.

Some photos of the lanterns on display in Chinatown.

These are moon-cakes. Some had melon seeds in them.

The original moon-cakes were bean paste wrapped in pastry skins.

Over time, people got more creative. The put salted egg yolks in the moon cakes.

Now, moon-cakes come in all sorts of flavours. Some of them are nothing more than dessert disguised as moon-cakes – in my opinion.

One piece of 'high-end' moon-cake cost anything between $15 SGD to $20 SGD, or more if they are popular brand names. It’s a once a year thing. Like all festivals that happen once a year, all businesses do their best to cash in on the occasion.

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Chinese New Year Gathering

A motley crew of the usual suspects had a Chinese New Year gathering at friend Ernest’s place last Saturday. Ernest had volunteered to cook for us (again), on this occasion. As usual, he cooked a scrumptious meal for us. Since it’s Chinese New Year, he cooked some Chinese dishes typically consumed during the Chinese New Year period..

Some snacks for tea – chips, pastry Chinese New Year cookies… etc. for tea, for those who arrived earlier in the afternoon.

For Dinner, we started with a raw fish salad. This dish is also called the ‘Prosperity toss’ – a dish consumed only during the Chinese New Year. There is a ritual to it. Strips of salmon or tuna fish, (we added abalone to the dish), sauces and condiments are mixed into a plate of vegetables. The vegetables used are carrots, white radish, green radish and cucumber. However, one can improvise, and use the vegetables they like. Each ingredient is added in a specific order, while reciting an auspicious phrase. When that is done, using chopsticks, participants dig into the salad and toss the salad high into the air while shouting out wishes. People believe the higher the toss, the better the fortune. It can end up pretty messing with the dish spilling all over the plate. But what is a little mess if doing that brings you abundant fortune, right?

We were very careful and there wasn’t a mess. So, we might not have abundant wealth this year!

Anyway, our second dish was shark’s fin soup. Shark’s fin soup is a soup or stewed dish. The shark fins provide texture, while the taste comes from the other ingredients. It is commonly served at special occasions such as weddings and banquets, or as a luxury item.

For the main course, we had claypot rice, and ‘Pun Choy’, also known as ‘Chinese casserole’.

For claypot rice, the rice is cooked in a claypot together with the ingredients. In this instance, the ingredients used were duck liver sausages; salted fish, and chicken. Dark sauce is added to the cooked rice, stirred and served.

‘Pun Choy’ also called ‘Poon choi’, and variously translated as ‘big bowl feast’, or ‘basin cuisine’ is a Chinese casserole dish of many ingredients served in a large communal bowl. It's a celebratory dish that's often eaten during Chinese New Year. Typically, it consists of expensive ingredients like abalone, scallops, fish maw, roast meat, dried mushrooms...

For our Chinese casserole, the ingredients used were:-
1. Braised pork belly
2. prawns
3. Stewed mushrooms with dried scallops and ‘Fat choy’ (black moss)
4. Sauté chicken with Chinese wine & ginger
5. Abalone
6. Scallops
7. Fish n pork Meatballs
8. Nai Bai (milk cabbage)

Some of us shared a nice bottle of Pinot Noir from New Zealand.

After dinner, there were fruits – jack-fruit, cherries, longan, and grapes.

As usual, by the end of the evening, we were feeling quite stuffed. The gathering broke up about 9 pm.

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Happy Lunar New Year

Today is the first day of the Lunar New Year – the Year of the Snake!

To those celebrating the occasion, Happy Lunar New Year to you!

If you wish to know more about Chinese horoscope predictions for 2025, you can have a look 👉 HERE

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Gardens By the Bay Celebrates Chinese New Year

One of the places in Singapore that celebrates the Chinese New Year in a big way is the Gardens by the Bay. It makes sense to celebrate the Chinese New Year in the Gardens because apart from being the number one tourist attraction in Singapore, the Gardens is big enough to accommodate the various activities like stage performances, carnival games, amusement rides, trade stalls, food street and the attractive lantern displays. Tourists visiting the Gardens will also have an opportunity to join in the celebration.

I was down there on Monday to see how the decorations, particularly the lanterns, are like this year. Unfortunately, work was still in progress and the displays were not quite ready. I guess the recent rainy spell had delayed work on setting up the display.

This is this year’s centerpiece display in the dragonfly lake.

Decors at one of the entry points.

The twelve animals of the Chinese Zodiac. Each animal takes turns presiding over the years in a twelve year-cycle. The coming year, starting tomorrow, will be the Year of the Snake! I think whoever was installing the lanterns did not know the sequence of the animals in the Zodiac – unless they intentionally meant it this way, for whatever reason. 

A stage for live performances by local artistes, and overseas performance troupe from Yunnan, China. Looking towards the stage is the God of Prosperity.

More lanterns and decors. They were still barricaded. I had intended to wait till dark to see them lit up. But, they were not ready.

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