Lunar New Year

The Chinese calendar is based on the lunar cycle, so their New Year's celebrations is not on January 1 like western calendars. This year, the New Year's celebration falls on 19 February, and we are really looking forward to being in Singapore for the experience. We had seen some of the preparations in Sydney, but being in an Asian country is totally different.


At the Chinese market, we saw lots of supplies for the upcoming festivals. Some of the items were easily recognizable -- lots of mandarin oranges, bamboo plants, red and gold decorations -- but we didn't necessarily know their significance. Others were totally inexplicable until we took a tour later in the day (see next post).

We also have seen many people stopping by Guanyin's temple to make offerings and get their fortune told. About twenty carts are set-up outside the temple selling all of the necessary accroutrements -- incense, flowers, oranges, etc. People come, offer incense to the heavens and to Guanyin, and then enter the temple to pray and have their fortunes told. We did the latter, there are more details in the next post but our mothers will be pleased to know that a daughter was foretold in each of our fortunes. We are planning to return to the temple at midnight on Saturday to see the throngs of people that show up at that auspicious time.