Chinese New Year Preparations

We arrived back in Singapore as preparations for their biggest annual celebration 'Chinese New Year' was gathering momentum. This year New Year's Eve falls on Wednesday 18th February and is followed by 2 days public holiday, making it a nice long weekend.
 I know very little about this festival so on Friday attended a morning's walking tour themed 'Chinese New Year'. It was fascinating, the Singaporean guide; Diana Chua explained about some of the religious beliefs, customs and superstitions surrounding this most important festival in the Chinese calendar as she took us through some of the lesser well-known streets in Chinatown.

Diana showing us the various paper offerings that are bought and then burned to show respect for the gods as well as love and concern for departed family members.
 She's holding up a robe destined for the goddess.There was also fake money, debit cards and passports all from the Hell Bank Corporation, which when burned will be go to the ancestors for use in the afterlife to help them escape punishment.
 You can even buy paper iPhone's, ferrari's and mansions to ensure your loved ones don't go without.

 Of course as with all festivals there are special foods and treats to enjoy-here are jars of hand made pineapple tarts, some shaped into gold ingots to signify wealth, all very delicious

We then stopped by a traditional confectioners which sells any ku kueh (red glutinous rice cake)  

The staff were making the sweets in traditional tortoise shaped moulds, the tortoise is a a symbol of longevity. The green ones were coconut flavoured, the red-peanut butter. I wasn't so keen on the sticky,glutinous rice shell but the insides were very tasty. 

Mrs Toh Bong Yeo is obviously quite well known and her produce high regarded judging by the awards on display.

We carried on, down Bukit Pasoh Road with still has fine examples of traditional shophouses, these ones unusually with ornate balconies

 As is very often seen in Singapore-the old and the new in close proximity-the tall building in the background is the famous The Pinnacle @ Duxton, a public housing project with 2 sky bridges linking the seven50 storey towers.

We went through a small passageway to the back of the houses and found a really quiet 'lane' heavily scented by jasmine bushes and other plants, including the 'pong-pong' tree,(Cebera odollam) which has pretty white flowers but the fruit is deadly poisonous apparently

 There was also a green and yellow grave, the only grave left from the Malay village cemetery that he'd been here years ago. The grave is  apparently that of a noble woman and each day fresh flowers appear on the grave.

It was time to stop and have a cool drink at a local cafe. As usual Coca Cola never miss a marketing opportunity.....












Diana had brought a traditional new year 'Chinese candy box' for us to share. It contained 6 (auspicious number) kinds of candied dried fruits from top right; ginger, coconut, lotus root, melon seeds, lotus seeds and carrot.

Sipping our cool drinks and snacking on the fruits at a quiet street cafe was very relaxing, we were a little taken aback when Diana pointed out above where we were sitting that some of the doorways had numbered boxes that could light up. When lit these indicate that the "young lady" inside is "available for visitors"! These are the only 2 remaining brothels in this area which used to be one of the best known red light district in the 60's

Moving on, deeper into Chinatown we next visited the Cundhi Gong temple on Keong Saik Road

    The temple's main deity is Guanyin/Zhunti the goddess of mercy with her 18 arms that each represent a different quality of enlightenment. On the temple walls were charts for the forthcoming Year of the Goat detailing auspicious and inauspicious times for each of the different animal signs of the Chinese zodiac. Apparently 2015 may be a tricky year for those born in the year of the Ox, Dragon, Snake and Dog and unfortunately that includes me, but the good news is that anyone can 'borrow luck' by making/buying offerings to this goddess and she will help as her mercy is available to all sentient beings not just Buddhists.

   As this next year will be a Year of The Goat, the decorations in the area reflect this. Almost all involve the colour red and auspicious images-lots of goats of course. The shops, houses, temples and streets were festooned with red lanterns, pineapple shaped decorations, goat themed paper cut-outs and Good Fortune signs.

There were of course lots of stalls with foods and treats, at the fruit stall there were Pomelos-a favourite at CNY and.... 

a citrus fruit I had never seen before called Buddha's hand, another popular gift at this time of year

Then there were neat stalls...

Cooked flattened and waxed whole ducks, sausages and other tasty meats!

                                                                           Bakkwa maker, bakwa is a dried and cured meat formed into flat squares, in CNY people eat the pork version which was very tasty, a bit like a salty-sweet cured, dried, thick bacon slice

                                                                                         and more sweets or maybe they are desserts,little  fruit flavoured jellies

Tour now over, treats and gifts bought and with sensory overload I headed home, down Eu Tong Sen Street with it's huge herd of goats galloping down the middle of the road with 3 enormous goats leading the charge 

 Happy Lunar New Year or Gong Xi Fa Cai everyone










 Hope it's not too exhausting..