Chinese New Year 2014 - Reunion Dinner

Last night, being the eve of Chinese New Year, the family have to gather together to have reunion dinner to celebrate the new year of the Chinese Calender.

Decorate the dinnerware with DBS Bank's ang pow with female ang pow (red packet) for myself and the male ang pow for the three guys in the house. The ang pows looked lovely as decoration.

We had steamboat dinner. Steamboat is not really a boat is actually like a hot pot, over here we refer the hot pot as steamboat.

The photo looked strange hahaha, the plate nearer to me looked bigger than the rest of the plate and the plate even looked bigger than the steam boat. The ingredients for the steamboat are instant noodle, glass noodle, raw eggs, wongbok vegetables, prawns, assorted yong tau fu, meat balls, cocktail sausages,button mushroom, bacon, prawns,cuttlefish ball,quail eggs, salmon fish, cod fish,pig's liver. Fried some chicken wings too.

Happy Chinese New Year 2014 - Year of the Wooden Horse

Here wishing all who celebrate a very Happy Chinese New Year. This year being the Year of the Wooden Horse and is the green horse. Those interested in reading fortunes can check this out from website.

It is for fun reading and I dont believe much in it cause there's so many millions of people born in the same zodiac so it does not represent each and everyone of them.

Bought some titbits for guests visiting but my two sons have been eating much of them hahahaha.

I did not buy much cookies, only baked some cookies. Every year I bought so many jars of cookies but guests are not eating much cause there's so much eating in each visiting that everyone afraid of eating more cookies lol.

Getting angpows ready for distribution to family,relatives and friends. Different designs of ang pows represent different amount of money contained inside so that I wont get mixed up and giving the wrong ang pows.

Chinese New Year 2014 - Ang Pows (Red Packets)

Every year without fail I went to collect some ang pows or red packets from the various banks. We need these ang pows to put gifts of money. These angpows are then given during Chinese New Year to unmarried family members and friends and our elderly relatives and parents.

The reason to have different ang pows is to differentiate the angpows because value of the angpow is different. The closer the relations the higher the value of the gift money.

The above photo are angpows from POSB Bank, they comes with stickers to seal the ang pows.

The above ang pow is from DBS Bank that comes with stickers too.

Ang pows from left to right are from United Overseas Bank, May Bank and Standard Chartered Bank. Love the colour of red ang pows.

The above angpows are given when we dine or purchase from the respective shops.

Chinatown Chinese New Year Celebrations 2014 Street Light-Up Ceremony - Part 4 - Writting Chinese New Year Couplets

Saw a stallholder writting Chinese New Year Couplets for his customer. It is traditional to hang couplets during Chinese New Year.

They usually contain words of good wishes and greetings.

Short video of his works.

Chinatown Chinese New Year Celebrations 2014 Street Light-Up Ceremony - Part 3

Over at South Bridge Road, there were also several smaller version of the horses decorations. They looked so pretty.

A short video of the decoratons.

Chinatown Chinese New Year Celebrations 2014 Street Light-Up Ceremony - Part 2

Every Chinese New Year, these dried goods are a must and favourite with all chinese, from chinese sausages, waxed ducks, pig's feet, etc.

These waxed pig's feet were made months before chinese new year and can kept for a long time.

They were so tough that the stall holder need a saw to cut them.

Red Raddish plant for sale, they are popular during Chinese New Year cause the radish is known as 菜头 in mandarin which proniciation sounds like (好)彩头 which means "good luck".

I think this is lily bulb (correct me if I am wrong)

Lucky bamboo for sale, it curved at the top.

Free sample of mochi

Saw this stall selling these cardboard crafts, hubby interested in the war ship.

If you have been to Macau, you will be familar with this famous Kok Kei Pastry Shop, they now have a branch in Singapore Chinatown. No need to travel to Macau to get these pastry anymore lol.

Handmade pineapple tarts spotted at one of the stalls.

This stall is popular but I think it helps to have on site a handy man to show the arts of making the shoes.

Cheong Sum or Qipao for sale - looked so pretty and inexpensive

Lanterns made from chinese new year red packets or ang pow.

If you are interested to learn how to make lanterns using the chinese new year red packets you can view the tutorial from You Tube. But needs lot of patience

Chinatown Chinese New Year Celebrations 2014 Street Light-Up Ceremony Part 1

Last weekend, I was at Chinatown to view the Street Light Up Official Opening for Chinese New Year 2014.

Chinatown was jam packed with so many people and I could not view the stage cause most gathered around the stage area to watch the performance.

It was better to be further from the stage where the crowd is thinner.

This year the decorations were very beautiful as compared to previous years. The many mascost of the horses were a welcoming sight to welcome the Year of the horse.

I took several photos and decided to head for dinner instead of waiting for the ceremony to start.

After dinner, I went back in time to witness the switching on of the street lights. It was so beautiful indeed.

Short video of the switching on of the lights - the lights come out somewhere in the middle of the video.

After watching the switching on of the steets lights, am not sure when the fireworks would start, so we went shopping at the Bazaar and around 9 pm we made our way back to the main road to try to catch the fireworks. We will so lucky that in less than a minute the firecrackers started as we were there, did not waste any time waiting lol. Following the firecrackers, the fireworks started so sudden and I have no time to adjust my camera so it explained the poor video of the fireworks. The auto focus was confusing with the motion of the fireworks as the fireworks were fired from the pedestrian bridge just above us. It seem so close to us as if the fireworks would fall on us, a beautiful sight and the mood of Chinese New Year was there. So sorry for the blur video.

Chinese New Year 2014 - God of Fortune

Time passes real fast, Chinese New Year is round the corner. This year is extreme early, will be 31st January 2014. As usual we need to spring clean our home to welcome guests during Chinese New Year.

I have loads of things to do and not yet completed my shopping too. Not even started to get new clothes and shoes for the festival.

Spotted this God of Fortune Mascot at NTUC Supermarket. He is the most popular during Chinese New Year, he is none other than the God of Fortune. His right hand holding the gold ingot and many will touch the gold ingot for luck and hoping God of Fortune will visit their homes.

Good Bye 2013 and Hello 2014

Here wishing everyone a very Happy New Year 2014 and Bye Bye 2013. Time to replace the calenders.