Gong Xi Fa Cai !!!

We've been seeing red, the past few weeks ! ! Everywhere you go, there are beautiful red lanterns dancing in the wind and red banners put up. It's the Chinese New Year and our apartment complex and most of Singapore, has been bathed in red, the lucky color for the chinese.

symbolic firecrackers hung outside our apartment lobby....to scare away Nian, a beast who comes out of hiding, once every year on Chinese new year to attack people, especially children. The Nian is sensitive to loud noises and afraid of the color red. I could send my children to every house for the decibel factor but then the locals already have the LION dance. Two people dressed as the lion perform the dance in each house, ushering in prosperity for that year and scaring away the evil. The dance is a treat to watch for the energy the dancers display. People hang a fruit with a red envelope containing money, and the lion is supposed to display its acrobatic skill in reaching the money and spitting out the fruit/lettuce.

These mandarin oranges, a symbol of prosperity, have been placed outside each apartment block lobby.

So as they say here, wishing you guys, Gong Xi Fa Cai, or Happy New Year and as its literal translation says, "wish you enlarge your wealth" !

people waiting in China town to usher in their new year...and its the year of the ox, this time.

And just so that you don't miss out, i give you a red back ground and pictures....how nice can i be, right?