It's now 'that time of year' in Singapore. We celebrated Chinese New Year (CNY) this past week. It is the most important of the traditional Chinese holidays. It is like Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year's all bundled in one fabulous holiday. You get 2 days off work but celebrations last for a over month. They start well before the first day of the New Year. There are 15 days of New Year all representing different things. The holiday is commonly called the Lunar New Year because it is based on the lunisolar calendar. It is also called the Spring Festival. The CNY celebrations are marked by visiting family and friends and a special dinner. New clothes, shoes, and haircuts are donned to signify a new year. Red is liberally used in all decorations. Doors are decorated. Red packets with money are given to kids. Employers give bonuses in red envelopes to signify wealth and prosperity. Google more about what happens on each day and the mythology behind it all--you'll find it fascinating.
Everywhere is decorated in some way or another.
This was incredible. It was a dragon, lamp, and phoenix made from over 10,000 pieces of porcelain plates, bowls, cups, and spoons. Wish I had a good shot to do it justice.
Meet the God of Fortune. Many Chinese worship him during Chinese New Year. Pictures of him are hung in households, hoping that fortune and good luck will shower upon them. His lantern is composed of unceasing wealth, seaweed from the Lotus Sea, and gold ingots to bless the people of Singapore. In fact, while we were there, the lantern shot out some "gold ingots", which created a mad rush to catch some.
Here is a Dragon sculpture sugar lamp, made of of several thousand kilograms of sugar. This is considered the epitome of the art of sugar lantern making.
This lady is making Zodiac symbols of sugar. You would spin a wheel (like wheel of fortune) and she would draw whichever Zodiac symbol you landed on.
(She's taking a picture of me as well--the only pose she'd do that day)
Wishing all of you a very auspicious year of the Tiger!!
Nice post Cheryl! Can't believe that thing made of plates, bowls, etc. We had our own CNY party. We invited friends and family and Jeff made a ton of food. Of course the kids just wanted their red packets of money! Greedy little things! : ) One of these days I'll blog about it but right now I'm too busy planning a little trip!
ReplyDeleteI love these! Emily wanted to know what the tiger's teeth were made out of.
ReplyDeleteSamara is such a cutie!!
Looks like fun. Samara is so cute.
ReplyDeleteMan, why can't we have that holiday here? I could definitely use red packets of money!!
ReplyDeleteGreat photos! I thought Samara was being a tiger :)
ReplyDeleteyou always have the most amazing photographs!!! samara is so dang incredibly cute!! love the 'picture pose'!
ReplyDeleteI agree with Kelly. Your photos are amazing. I'm really hoping they cover 'taking photos at night' in my photography class next month. I wish you were closer so you could train me in your magical ways. But mostly I'm happy for y'all to be having such a wonderful adventure in Singapore. Wonder what it would take to get the city of Greenville to host a Chinese New Year celebration like that?!?
ReplyDeleteOK, Samara is darling! She is a great picture taker! :) Year of the Tiger? It must be our year! GO OHS TIGERS! :)
ReplyDeleteI think your picture of the porcelain plates/bowls/cups/spoons looked pretty amazing! Wish I could have seen it in person!
These are the most gorgeous pictures ever (again)! There is no way I would try to pick a favorite. They really are beautiful. I'm so amazed at the "materials" that are used for these sculptures.
ReplyDeleteMissy Miss needs her own camera, by the way. She could probably put us all to shame.
I loved this.
That is too awesome! It'd be cool to see all of the festivities! Love Samara's little snapshot, too funny!! =0)
ReplyDeleteThis is going to be as fantastic a year for you and your family, as your photographs are fantastic. I love friendly Tigers!!! Sharon Furner.
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