When the Chinese people are happy to celebrate the New Year, people in some Asian countries are also characterized by folk activities to celebrate the old and welcome the new. These places have their own unique New Year's customs, the warmth of family and friends reunion, "worship" of the festive hustle and bustle so that people taste the full flavor of the year.
The North Koreans pay tribute to the New Year
Paying tribute to the New Year is the main event of the Korean New Year's Eve customs. Early in the morning on the first day of the year, the family wakes up very early and puts on new clothes, especially the little girls who mostly wear colorful national costumes and look lively and lovely. New Year's activities start with ancestor worship, the sacrificial table is set with a variety of food and alcohol, the family kowtow to the deceased ancestors, and then to the elders of the family one by one to pay tribute to the New Year. The elders are given a big kowtow in order of seniority and age and are wished a long and healthy life. The elders prepare some simple gifts for the elders and give some New Year's money to the children. It is also indispensable to pay New Year's greetings to the elders and teachers in the neighborhood, which reflects the beautiful custom of the DPRK of respecting the old and the young and honoring the teachers. Friends and neighbors say good wishes and encouragement to each other during the New Year's greetings.
Koreans emphasize ancestor worship and filial piety
Compared with the New Year's Eve on the 30th day of the New Year, Koreans attach more importance to the rituals of the first day of the New Year, which is called the "rituals and year-end worship". People will place their ancestors' tablets or portraits according to their family tree and set up various offerings on the offering table. The offerings strictly follow the rules of "fish, east, meat, west", "head, east, tail, west", "red, east, white, west", "raw, east, ripe, west", and "left rice, right soup". "The rice is placed on the left side of the table and the right side of the spoon. The whole family, dressed in traditional national costumes, kowtow to their ancestors in turn.
Vietnamese New Year's Eve
The Vietnamese also have the custom of New Year's Eve. As soon as zero hour arrives on the first day of the first month, Vietnamese people start worshipping gods and ancestors. Five fruit plates, symbolizing the five elements of heaven and earth, are essential offerings to express gratitude to ancestors and to wish for a happy, healthy and lucky New Year. After paying homage, people go to the temple with their families or friends to pray for blessings, and they also break off a branch with new shoots from the tree in the temple and put it on the offering table with reverence after returning home, which is called "inviting the Loc", which is believed by Vietnamese people to bring good luck to the family.
Cambodian Chinese go to the temple to ask for incense
On New Year's Eve, Cambodian Chinese usually go to the temple to ask for incense, as the aboriginal people of the Khmer people because of the belief in Buddhism has also gradually accepted this custom. Every New Year's Eve around 10 pm, the Chinese and Khmer people will go to the capital Phnom Penh neighboring province of Kandal, an area commonly known as Dakin Oo, where there is a temple of Bao Sheng Da Di is located in the Mekong River tributary of the Baishe River, because of its well-preserved after the war by the people to believe in.
The Chinese in Indonesia emphasize on tradition
The Chinese in Indonesia keep the original Chinese New Year customs. During the Chinese New Year, every family is decorated with lanterns and lights, young and old are reunited, the elders give red packets to their elders, and going to the temples to burn incense and worship the Buddha is also an important content. The most important activity of the Chinese community in Indonesia during the Spring Festival is the New Year's Eve dinner for the whole family.
Singaporeans pay tribute to the New Year "for orange"
The small geographical area, convenient transportation in Singapore retains the custom of relatives and friends to pay tribute to each other in the first month of the New Year. On the first day of the New Year, adults and children will "wear new clothes, wear a new hat" and bring two mandarin oranges as a gift, meaning "great luck", "two gold" and "good things come true". "Good things come in pairs", the host should also give back to the guests two mandarin oranges, Singaporeans commonly known as "for orange".
Another detailed
Koreans celebrate the Spring Festival: to eat rice cakes and sliced soup
The Chinese New Year is also one of the biggest traditional festivals in Korea. As a Korean daughter-in-law married in China, I have been studying and living in Beijing for a few years, and every time the Spring Festival comes, I miss my hometown of Korea in my in-laws' house, and I miss the scene of the Korean New Year and my family there.
Korea is a very traditional country, and the Spring Festival is a festival based on ancestor worship and filial piety, a day of ancestor worship and praying for family peace. Today, the Spring Festival has also been given a new meaning by modern people, that is, to give people a moment of peace and happiness by taking a break from the stressful pace of urban life. So, everywhere you go in Korea on Chinese New Year will be filled with joy and good fortune.
There are a lot of traditional Korean customs for the Spring Festival, such as the traditional makeup, the traditional painting, the blessed strainer, and the legend of catching the ghosts of the night light, and so on. The customs that have been handed down to this day include ancestor worship, yearly worship, deokjeong, "moksik" and jumping boards, and so on. Chinese people eat rice cakes for the Spring Festival, and Koreans also have special food for the Spring Festival, collectively known as the "New Year's Meal". The most representative Chinese New Year dish that has been handed down to this day is "rice cake soup". In ancient times, Koreans worshiped the sun, and the white, small, round rice cake slices represented the sun, and eating them on the morning of the first day of the first month of the Lunar New Year meant welcoming the light of the sun. In addition, according to primitive religious beliefs, it also represents the solemnity and cleanliness of the time when the old year is over and the new year is over and everything is revitalized and resurrected. The soup used to be made with pheasant broth, but nowadays pheasant is hard to come by, so beef or chicken broth is used instead. In the central and northern regions, dumplings stuffed with chicken, mung bean sprouts, mushrooms, and kimchi are also popular. In addition, each family prepares foods such as honeyed nuts, cinnamon soup, hakama rice and sliced meat to welcome friends and relatives who come to pay their respects.
Japanese New Year's custom: buy lucky bags for good luck
Japan: The Spring Festival is the biggest festival in Japan before, every family decorated houses with pine and cypress, and on New Year's Eve the whole family gathered around the fireplace to observe the New Year's Eve. At midnight, 108 bells are rung at the temple, and the next day, they pay homage to each other.
In Japan, there is a New Year's product called "Fukubukuro". Fukubukuro is an opaque bag that contains goods. There are many types of bags, including cosmetics, clothing, miscellaneous goods, electrical appliances, and anything that can fit in a bag. Prices range from 1,000 yen to tens of thousands of yen. The bags are so popular that they are often pre-sold well in advance.
Why are these bags so popular? Originally, the lucky bag is very valuable, a thousand dollars in the lucky bag, often priced at about 1,000 yuan of goods there are three or four; sometimes a 20,000 yen in the lucky bag, there are 30,000 or 40,000 yen worth of digital cameras may also be said. In this way, buying a lucky bag gives you the feeling of winning a jackpot in the New Year. Of course, there are only a handful of these bags, but the thought of winning the jackpot, or at least getting their money's worth, will have consumers clamoring for them.
For merchants, this type of sale has a much different effect than a regular promotion. The general promotion is the consumer to buy goods, buy a few pieces to consumers to say, and installed in the bag is invisible, the business can be free to match. For consumers, Fukubukuro is really good value for money. It is said that few Japanese women can resist the temptation of Fukubukuro, and besides, the name Fukubukuro is also very attractive. Who wouldn't want to go home with a blessing on New Year's Eve!
The Mongolians: Eat, Drink, Sing and Dance
At the beginning of the New Year, the Mongolians, who live far away from the northern border of China, are also immersed in a strong atmosphere of joy.
Historically, the Spring Festival was not a traditional festival for the Mongols, but as more and more Han Chinese came to live in the Mongolian settlements, the customs of the people changed, making the Spring Festival a time of joy for the Mongols and Han Chinese to **** together and celebrate!
But the same is the celebration of the Spring Festival, the Mongolian people on the steppe and the city with the Han people living in the Mongolian people have a very different way of celebrating.
Colorful attire
The Mongolian people on the steppe still keep their own traditions, they wear colorful dresses, bring out the most delicious food, invite their best friends and relatives to their homes, and drink the rich and fragrant horse milk wine, sing and dance, and taste the fat and tender hand-held meat in the grand festival.
The Spring Festival is a great time for the people of the steppe to get together and communicate with each other. Since many Mongolians still maintain a nomadic and romantic lifestyle on the steppe, it is very difficult for them to meet with each other in normal times, so they may be able to meet each other at a horse race, or a wrestling meet if they are separated for a long time by the Spring Festival.
Regardless of the results of the competition, after a fierce battle on the field, after the dragon and tiger, in the private meeting, they will give each other the hatha, each other to honor the snuff bottle, to express the deep feelings of longing and blessing.
Relatives and friends *** with the celebration of the New Year moment, each other may feel strange, because some relatives are far away from each other, may be ten years have not seen a face, and wait until the meeting, after the weather face has become unrecognizable!
I have seen a pair of brothers drinking in the same yurt, but they did not recognize each other, until an old man broke the "organ", the two brothers only tears of joy!
City celebrations
Mongolians growing up in the city have forgotten their mother tongue and have been completely Sinicized, while some have managed to maintain their own ethnic circles, but have to be influenced by the whole environment and adapt to the trend. Mongolians in the city have a completely different concept of Chinese New Year from that of the steppe, they have their own set of ideas and another set of ideas that they learned from the Han Chinese. Generally they still keep some of their own ways of celebrating, such as eating hand-held mutton, barbecuing lamb kebabs, singing while drinking, playing the horse-head qin, and so on, Mongolia's own way of celebrating festivals.
On the other hand, they also have the same way of celebrating as the Han Chinese, such as meeting relatives, gathering friends for dinner, inviting their bosses to their homes to promote their relationship; setting off firecrackers, twisting rice-planting songs, wrapping dumplings, and making new clothes for the children and other programs.
For the Sinicized Mongolians, the reunion dinner on New Year's Eve, and the firecrackers at midnight at the turn of the new year is essential.
In fact, the reunion dinner is based on eating dumplings, and before the zero hour of the old year, the whole family will gather together and make dumplings while laughing and joking. The dumplings on New Year's Eve are very elaborate, first of all, everyone's dumplings should be the same size, which means the whole family is equal and no one bullies anyone!
Secondly, the choice of ingredients for the dumpling filling is absolutely not to be sloppy, the dumpling filling selection for New Year's Eve must have an auspicious meaning. For example, you can't choose beef filling, because no one wants a new year to be too "laborious"; you can't choose carrots, because no one wants to be more and more foolish; and of course, you can't put in garlic, which is always counted as not enough.
Auspicious dumpling fillings include "flying dragon" meat, horse meat, parsley, chives, lamb, and so on.
All these can be found in the auspicious signs, such as dragon and tiger leap, ten thousand horses gallop, eat fragrant, drink spicy, long time, three sheep to open Tai Tai.
Festive "explosion"
The dumplings on New Year's Eve must be brought to the table at the moment when the clock strikes midnight 12 times, symbolizing the old and the new, full circle!
Meanwhile, outside, firecrackers and fireworks explode with the departure of the old year and the arrival of the new year. At this moment, the sky is full of colorful flames, full of ears are celebratory "explosion" sound, at the same time full of heart overflowing with the joy of the New Year.
Wearing new clothes is one of the most important things that children care about in addition to the red envelope, although the Mongolian children in the city have been attracted by those ridiculously expensive brand-name, but there are still some Mongolian mothers in order to let their children do not forget that they are the descendants of the Mongolians, they will allow them to wear their own hand-stitched traditional clothing on New Year's Eve, the depth of their feelings, and painstakingly from the clothes of the exquisite patterns and meticulous workmanship. The exquisite pattern and meticulous workmanship is enough to reflect.
In fact, New Year's is a very important festival for Mongolians on the steppe and in the city.
Every New Year, the children of the steppe, dressed in brightly colored costumes, travel long distances to the city to go shopping, see new things, buy all kinds of new year's goods, and also prepare for the tools of life that they will need in the spring of next year.
Children growing up in the city seldom know how to use their mother tongue, and when they see their parents using a language they don't understand to talk to strange, short, strong men, they are puzzled as to why their parents have to come here every year to find someone to talk to.
In fact, this place is specially prepared for these prairie "black-faced guests", while the city residents rarely come here to buy things.
The New Year is indeed different, those who should see each other always in the right time, the right place, meet each other, can hear their own voice, speak their own willing to speak, share their different happy story.
This will add a festive atmosphere to the New Year and also put a step up for next year's reunion.
Vietnamese celebrate Lunar New Year: glutinous rice and bean paste New Year dumplings
Vietnam is one of the few countries in the world that use the lunar calendar and one of the few countries where the Lunar New Year is celebrated throughout the country.
Lunar New Year is the biggest and most lively traditional festival of Vietnamese folklore. Vietnamese people regard the Lunar New Year as a day to celebrate the old and welcome the new, and usually start to do the Lunar New Year shopping from the middle of December on the lunar calendar, and the most indispensable things for the Lunar New Year in Vietnam are probably flowers, rice dumplings, spring scrolls, and firecrackers.
The flower market is one of the important activities of the Lunar New Year in Vietnam. For example, in Hanoi, about 10 days before the Lunar New Year, the flower market begins to bustle. Vietnamese people's favorite annual flowers include gladiolus, dahlia, kumquat and peach blossom. In addition to flowers and bonsai, the market also sells balloons, lanterns, toys, New Year's paintings, spring scrolls, calendars and other items, which decorate several streets connected with each other in a colorful and joyful way.
Rice dumplings made of glutinous rice, pork and green bean paste
Vietnamese people also have the habit of posting spring scrolls during the Lunar New Year. In the past, spring couplets were written in Chinese characters, but after the romanization of the characters, most of the couplets are now written in pinyin, and each pinyin character is a square, which creates its own style.
In addition, Vietnamese people also like to post the words "Blessing", "Hei Hei" and images of the stars of fortune, wealth and longevity, as well as various traditional New Year's paintings at home to express their good wishes and aspirations for the New Year.
Local Chinese must have rice cakes and other foods for the Lunar New Year, and Vietnamese are no exception, among which the most national characteristics are rice dumplings and glutinous rice cakes.
The rice dumplings are made in the same way as the rice dumplings we eat, but the Vietnamese rice dumplings are square and much larger, usually made with 200 grams of glutinous rice, wrapped in the middle with 200 grams of pork and 150 grams of green bean paste, wrapped in banana leaves. Legend has it that the rice dumplings symbolize the earth, the green color shows vitality, and the pork and mung bean paste represent the birds and animals and the grass and trees.
In the old days, Vietnamese used to set off firecrackers on Lunar New Year's Day, but since 1995, the Vietnamese government has banned people from setting off fireworks during the Lunar New Year.
The Chinese have a custom of observing New Year's Eve, as do the Vietnamese. On New Year's Eve, people put on their festive attire and rush out onto the streets, with young women wearing Vietnamese cheongsams. The festive atmosphere culminates at zero hour when the national leader's Lunar New Year speech is broadcast on the radio. People then pick a branch to take home. This custom is called "picking green". In Vietnamese, the words "green" and "loc" have the same sound. "Picking green" means "picking Loc", which means bringing home good luck.
The first guest brings good luck in the Lunar New Year
The Vietnamese usually take a few days off during the Lunar New Year, and it is also customary to pay New Year's greetings to friends and relatives. The earliest visitor to a home is especially valued and is said to bring good luck to the host. The Vietnamese call this "Chon Ka" or "Chon Di", which is close in meaning to "Chon Hai". Therefore, Vietnamese people usually invite their closest and most respected friends to be the first guests of the Lunar New Year.
In addition to friends and relatives to visit each other, during the Tet holiday in Vietnam around the streets, parks and public **** entertainment venues, for several days to hold a variety of recreational activities, performances of traditional Vietnamese theater, song and dance, acrobatics, martial arts, wrestling, lion dance, etc., as well as swinging, playing chess, cockfighting, bird fighting and other folk activities, the whole of Vietnam immersed in the festive atmosphere.
Singapore over the Spring Festival: Southeast Asian characteristics
The Lunar New Year is approaching, in Singapore, where the Chinese population accounts for nearly 80%, is undoubtedly the most important of the year, the atmosphere of the most intense holiday. Once Christmas is over, the streets and business districts are dressed in traditional Chinese New Year attire, with large and small red lanterns hanging high, and New Year's paintings plastered over, all in a joyous mood. The traditional Chinese stores in Chinatown are full of people buying Chinese New Year goods, and traditional New Year songs are playing in the streets!
Chinese New Year Celebrations at a Glance
Chinatown Lunar New Year Illumination Celebration: From January 15 to February 28, the bustling Chinatown Lunar New Year Market will feature more than 400 Lunar New Year stalls selling a wide range of festive gifts. Shop for Chinese New Year goods and enjoy the rich Chinese New Year atmosphere! Don't miss the countdown carnival on New Year's Eve, February 8, and join the locals in celebrating the new Year of the Rooster!
Spring to Riverside: From February 7 to February 23, Spring to Riverside is a grand carnival that brings in the old, welcomes the new, and brings joy to the family! The annual program is rich in excitement and variety and runs for more than 10 days.
The Whimsical Dreams Makeup Parade: Preview on February 18 at 7 p.m. and the official parade on February 19 at 7:30 p.m. The parade is now in its 33rd year. Now in its 33rd year, the parade features elaborate floats, fancy dress, martial arts performances, and dancers!
Sentosa Flower Festival 2005: From February 9 to 20, don't miss the Flower Festival at Fountain Gardens, Sentosa! You'll be able to see a wide range of flowers and tropical nature plants that you'll never see again.
Spring is in the air: from January 13 to February 23, performers and craftsmen from all over China will present a series of exciting programs at Raffles City Mall. This month-long event will allow you to enjoy a blend of traditional Chinese culture and modern styles of music, dance and acrobatics.
Must-try Southeast Asian cuisine
Hainan Chicken Rice: Steamed tender chicken and rice cooked in chicken broth. Laksa: coconut curry sauce with coarse rice noodles, baby shrimps, egg, shredded chicken and raw clams.
Stir-fried Vermicelli: wide white vermicelli noodles stir-fried with dark sweet sauce, bean sprouts, fish cake, preserved sausage and raw clams.
Hokkien Shrimp Noodles: thin noodles, shrimp, sliced cuttlefish and pork cooked and stir-fried. Indian Patties: Patties filled with beef or lamb and eaten with curry sauce.
Curry Fish Head: Large fish head cooked with vegetables and curry powder, eaten with rice, sweet and appetizing. It is even more memorable when served with a glass of frozen lemon juice!
Satay: Grilled skewered meat, topped with Malay rice dumplings and cucumber, eaten with spicy peanut sauce.
Loh Chai: a local salad with fruits and vegetables such as cucumber, bean sprouts, yellow pear, white radish, dried beans and even mango and cuttlefish.
Nyonya Cake: A combination of Chinese and Malay traditions, this dessert is famous for its color and flavor, with ingredients such as sticky rice, cassava, garam masala leaves, and a variety of tropical fruits such as bananas, durians, and coconuts.
Chilli Crab: A delicious seafood cooked in a tomato curry thick sauce with hard shelled king crab, you can follow the custom and dare to eat white bread dipped in the spicy sauce with your hands, so delicious that you can suck your fingers.
Sashimi is another must-try Chinese New Year dish. Fresh slices of raw fish are mixed with a variety of vegetables, sesame seeds, crunchy nuts and other ingredients to create an appetizing Chinese salad.
Must-visit markets
Ngau Che Shui Lunar New Year's Eve Market: Get out there and be a shopper! The local specialty, inexpensive and good quality New Year's Eve market will give you a stronger New Year's Eve atmosphere!
Lunar New Year's Market: From January 28th to February 8th, from 5pm to 10pm, at the junction of Lorong Aso and Hougang Road, the bustling Lunar New Year's Eve atmosphere in the Aljunied King Wan area is like a condensed version of the Ngau Che Shui! The area is filled with colorful lanterns and a variety of entertainment.
Arbor Centre Garden Party 2005: From January 26 to February 8, and February 12 to March 13, Singapore's largest garden extravaganza will be in full bloom! Whether it's artificial flowers or gardening tools, you'll find it all at the Garden Fair, not to mention the beautiful flowers that fill the garden with their scent!
Esplanade Chinese Arts Festival: From February 11 to 20, the Festival, in its third year, will present the best of the best in modern and traditional Chinese arts, with performances by classical guitarist Xuefei Yang, and the New York-based Shen Wei Dance Troupe, bringing you into an unforgettable realm of the arts.
Orchard Road: For those who love fashion brands, Orchard Road is the shopping paradise you've been waiting for! Shopping malls such as Suntory Place, Takashimaya, Paragon or Wisma Plaza, department stores such as Isetan, Metro or Romansun can easily satisfy your cravings and let you enjoy shopping to your heart's content!
Must-see attractions
Jurong Bird of Prey Park: Why not take advantage of the Lunar New Year to visit Southeast Asia's largest and most prestigious Bird of Prey Park? After a spectacular bird show and a tour of the park, you can enjoy a must-try "sashimi" meal with your friends and family at FlamingoCafe!
Singapore Zoo: The zoo's beloved mascot, "Sing", the gorilla, will welcome you with his long arms! Just five minutes away, you'll find the world's first night safari at the renowned Singapore Zoo. Step into the dense tropical forest and discover nocturnal wildlife for a thrilling experience!
Asian Civilizations Museum Chinese New Year Celebration: The Asian Civilizations Museum is a great place for the whole family to celebrate Chinese New Year! You can make red envelopes and lanterns by hand, as well as watch a hilarious puppet show.
Japanese New Year's Customs: Buying Lucky Bags for Good Luck
Japan: The Spring Festival was the biggest festival in Japan until now, when every house was decorated with pine and cypress, and on New Year's Eve the whole family gathered around the fireplace to celebrate the New Year's Eve. At midnight, 108 bells are rung at the temple, and the next day, they pay homage to each other.
In Japan, there is a New Year's product called "Fukubukuro". Fukubukuro is an opaque bag that contains goods. There are many kinds of bags, including cosmetics, clothing, miscellaneous goods, electrical appliances, and anything that can fit in a bag. Prices range from 1,000 yen to tens of thousands of yen. The bags are so popular that they are often pre-sold well in advance.
Why are these bags so popular? Originally, the lucky bag is very valuable, a thousand dollars in the lucky bag, often priced at about 1,000 yuan of goods there are three or four; sometimes a 20,000 yen in the lucky bag, there are 30,000 or 40,000 yen worth of digital cameras may also be said. In this way, buying a lucky bag gives you the feeling of winning a jackpot in the New Year. Of course, there are only a handful of these bags, but the thought of winning the jackpot, or at least getting their money's worth, will have consumers clamoring for them.
For merchants, this type of sale has a much different effect than a regular promotion. The general promotion is the consumer to buy goods, buy a few pieces to consumers to say, and installed in the bag of things are invisible, the business can be free to match. For consumers, Fukubukuro is really good value for money. It is said that few Japanese women can resist the temptation of Fukubukuro, and besides, the name Fukubukuro is very attractive. Who wouldn't want to go home with good fortune in the New Year!