Singapore is a very diverse country, and we celebrate lots of different holidays. Chinese new year is one of them. I go to an international school, so during classes, we learned about Chinese new year and how to celebrate it.
This year my family decided to do something special. On Chinese new years eve, we went out for dinner at a Chinese restaurant and did Lohei. Lohei is like a salad, and every ingredient that we put in the “salad” has a meaning to it. For example, Crispy crackers symbolises greater wealth. Peanuts and sesame seeds wish your business to enjoy good profits. Lime wishes you to have good luck, success and prosperity and so on. After we put all of the ingredients in, we toss the salad as high as we can and mix it in the air and say chinese phrases.
My younger brother’s Chinese tutor kindly offered to spend the night on Chinese New Year’s day with us, and taught us what to eat and what to do. At home, my brother and I did some activities. We did Chinese calligraphy and wrote different hopes for the new year. Then my brother and I made tiger lanterns out of oranges because it is the year of the tiger. We went to China town in Singapore and ate at a restaurant the teacher recommended. My whole family practiced speaking Chinese by ordering our own food. It was a very fun experience.
I really enjoyed spending the Chinese new year with my family and learning new things about the Chinese culture.