Everything you need to know about the Lunar New Year in Singapore
Millions of people all over the world are gearing up to celebrate Chinese New Year later this month. Also known as the Lunar New Year, the Spring Festival, Tet and Seollal, the official start of the new lunar calendar will mean wiping clean the slate of the past 12 months and opening the door to an exciting new year.
In 2024, celebrations across the globe will be as vibrant as always, filled with many of the same traditions, customs and super-delicious food as usual. Here’s everything you need to know about the huge annual holiday this year.
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When is Chinese New Year 2024?
The Chinese New Year marks the first day in the lunar calendar, which begins the day after the first new moon appears between February 9 and March 10. This year the New Year falls on Saturday, February 10. The celebrations usually start on the evening preceding the first day of the new year (February 9), and run until February 24, when the period of New Years celebrations traditionally culminates in lantern festivals. The Lantern festival is held on the fifteenth day of festivities, and celebrates families and society. While the rest of the holiday is traditionally devoted to spending time with family, during the lantern festival, people of all ages and gender will take to the streets for a time of socialising and freedom.
Where is Chinese New Year celebrated?
All over China, for a start: the period from February 10 to 17 is a national public holiday. But the lunar new year is also celebrated in many other regions and countries which either use the lunar calendar or have large Chinese or Chinese-speaking populations. This includes Malaysia, Vietnam, Korea, Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia, Singapore and the Philippines, along with Chinese communities in almost every other country in the world.
How is Chinese New Year celebrated?
New Year traditions and customs vary widely in different regions and countries. In a normal year, however, you might well expect parades and performances, often involving elaborate dragons and lions, people in traditional costumes, and plenty of fireworks and firecrackers, which are said to ward off evil spirits.
‘New Year festivities in Hong Kong usually kick off with an annual night parade featuring massive floats, costumes, acrobats, lion and dragon dances and various performances,’ says Tatum Ancheta, editor of Time Out Hong Kong. ‘It’s usually the liveliest and most vibrant way you’ll experience the city after the Christmas festivities.’
In 2024 you will find all manner of dazzling New Year displays in Chinatowns and other iconic spots around the world. Many will also celebrate the annual holiday with family. ‘One of the main highlights of the New Year is a reunion dinner with the family,’ says Delfina Utomo, editor of Time Out Singapore. ‘Sometimes there will be several rounds of this, depending on how big your family is. Food is a huge part of the celebrations.’
Families will usually clean their houses on New Year’s Eve, to sweep away any bad luck, and adorn their windows and doors with red paper-cuts and lanterns. Money and presents are given and received in red envelopes and packaging (again, to ward off evil and augur good health). Families may also buy fresh flowers to decorate their house.
What is the Chinese New Year animal for 2024?
Each new year is characterised by one of the 12 animals that make up the Chinese zodiac. This coming year will be the Year of the Dragon, which symbolises power, strength and good fortune.
How can you celebrate Chinese New Year at home?
Feast, feast, feast. The family dinner on New Year’s Eve is all important and is a goer for most people. If you can’t cook your own feast, there are plenty of delivery services offering Chinese New Year meals in cities around the world.
What is traditional Chinese New Year food?
Many big dinners will feature a communal hotpot, which is thought to represent the reunion of family members around the table. Most will also be centred around unusual meats or seafood that are expensive or otherwise hard to get hold of.
For example, Ancheta says many Hong Kongers will go for poon choi – ‘a traditional Cantonese big-bowl meal filled with an assortment of seafood, like fresh abalone, conpoy (dried scallops), sea cucumber and prawns, as well as mushrooms and roast meats’.
In Singapore, meanwhile, Utomo says locals may well opt for pen cai, another one-dish meal featuring abalone, mushrooms and conpoy which is cooked in a clay pot. Yusheng (a raw fish salad) is a common starter, and for dessert, pineapple tart and nian gao (a sticky rice cake) are popular choices.
Other common traditional foods in mainland China include noodle soups, dumplings, spring rolls and, for dessert, tangyuan (sweet rice balls). So whether you’re cooking for yourself this New Year’s Eve, ordering in, or meeting family or friends, one thing is certain: you won’t go hungry.
