Toss up for a good year!

One of the most interesting celebration of new year for me is the Chinese way. Because of their many different beliefs and rituals, they welcome the new year full of hope and optimism.

Two weeks after I moved to Singapore, I celebrated CNY for the first time together with my We Are Social family. Here, the Chinese believe that tossing up yu sheng (raw fish salad) symbolises luck, prosperity, good health, and all things good. The practice of mixing it together is called lo hei (also in Malaysia) which means tossing up good fortune in Cantonese. Yu which is “fish” in Mandarin, shares the same pronunciation with another character that stands for “abundance.” Each of the ingredients in yu sheng has significance like sesame seeds, which represents flourishing business and green radish for everlasting youth. As everyone partakes in mixing the salad, wishes are uttered to shower blessings to their lives for the year ahead.

For a first-timer, I was not bad in tossing but I don’t think I tossed enough for a promising year so I’ll back it up with hard work! 🙂

BEFORE AND AFTER.

We spent half day in the office going around the city to celebrate the new year with lo hei, tea, and childhood games! Plus, I got my first-ever ampaw!

We Are Social family

One of my first good friends in the office, Vera, invited me and Tianyu for a reunion dinner with her family. It was a great pleasure meeting her beautiful family and sharing a hot pot with them.

After the dinner, we visited a few temples and headed to Chinatown for the countdown. The countdown is very nice to experience but you better be prepared to endure the heat because of the crowd and loud noises from fireworks cause they believe that it will shoo away the bad things.