GERALD CNY

Colour: RED

Red, as known to many, is one of the most popular decorative colours during Chinese New Year. It symbolizes good fortune and joy, which is why this colour is so commonly used. It is bright and vibrant, signifying a joyous, celebrative mood.

Symbol : Chinese zodiac signs

 

This used to excite me most when I was a kid, comparing zodiac signs with relatives and friends. It kind of feels like a representation of oneself, which I thought was pretty cool as it meant that I was a dragon (which in my opinion totally rocks). I first heard about the story about the animals when I was 8 or 9 and I was pretty disappointed and appalled by the fact that the dragon didnt win as it could even fly.

Image: Lion Dance

 

The Lion Dance is also a specialty of Chinese New Year or any other festive Chinese occasions. These skilled dancers will shock you with their ability to coordinate well with each other. It is usually a loud procession with the gigantic drums and all. I feel that these Lion Dancers deserve respect as they work hard practising their routine to perform for US.

Wienna's CNY

Colour: Orange 

 Orange symbolises mandarin orange and since it is a tradition to exchange mandarin oranges when visiting during the Chinese New Year, it symbolises the CNY.

Symbol: 

When the Chinese New year is here, people put up signs like this to welcome wealth, prosperity and happiness during the lunar new year and so to me, this represents the CNY! :) 

Images: 

This is family and to me, Chinese New year is a time for families to finally get to see each other, relax and bond together without the hectic work schedule and I find being together with your families during Chinese New year is very important. 

Yoon Yee's CNY

Colour: Gold

Other than red, gold is also a common colour seen during the Chinese New Yera period. Gold is seen as an auspicious colour as Chinese in the past used it as currency. 

Symbol: 福倒

This is a common Chinese New Year decoration, meaning that 福 is coming this new year. It symbolizes the wishes that people have for the new year, so I feel that this is an appropriate symbol. Huat ah!!!!

Image: Goodies

Of course, the celebrations cannot be complete without these yummy treats. There are always lots of these treats in every house you visit and I make sure I get a good helping of those. I love the pineapple tarts the best.

Yiying's CNY

Colour: RED

Red is the most commonly seen colour during Chinese New Year. It symbolises good luck and fortune. Seeing so much red around helps me get into the festive mood!

Symbol: RED PACKET

Red packets are often given out by the elderly to the younger generation, to give them well-wishes and blessings. I love receiving red packets as they contain money!

Image: LION DANCE

Lion dances are a must-see during Chinese New Year, as the agile 'lions' dance about excitedly, accompanied by loud drumming. I like watching lion dances with my relatives and family in Malaysia.

POVERTY IN SINGAPORE

Poverty around the whole world has been increasing through the past few years due to the increase in the standard of living. Many people have fell below the poverty line and have been suffering in the society. Most of which are the elderly people who are either too weak to work or doesn't have the requirements to apply for a job.

In Singapore , there's no minimum wage, thus many people are not earning enough to make ends meet and there is also and increasing number of jobless people. From the chart above, we can see that about 460,000 people are living below the poverty line. The wealthy people gets wealthier and wealthier while the poor people gets poorer and poorer.

From the graph above, we can see that the populace living in poverty has been increasing tremendously for the past 12 years. Even with Singapore's increasing GDP (Gross Domestic Product), there are still many Singaporeans not having a decent income or even a job.

The populace that has been affected the most are the ageing and elderly people living in Singapore. Some don't have children to take care of them and some are most probably homeless. There are many cases of which I've seen old people sleeping on the benches in parks or the ledges of void decks or even on the cold hard ground. It's a sight that I will never forget. Every time I've seen people selling tissue papers at hawker centers and food courts, I will undoubtly buy from them even if I have one myself. That single dollar when compiled together with other peoples "contributions" it could really make a huge difference for the poor and less fortunate people. The heart ache I receive every time I see these old people (some disabled) really touches me as they showed me their will to live on . So to anyone that is reading this post, why not lend a helping hand to the less fortunate people whenever you can?

wenping

CHINESE NEW YEAR

Wenping : red 

Color:

Red  is the first color that came into my mind. Every year my house is filled with red colored based decorations and ornaments. The lighting , the sofa covers and even the curtains are red. 

Symbol: $$$ (money)

The most memorable red colored thing is the red envelopes filled with money($$) we receive when we visit relatives houses to bai-nian as it is a tradition that every Chinese follow that when they are married, they are supposed to give the young ones red packets.

SCHOOL SPIRIT

The picture above depicts a scene of the entire school attending the the schools anniversary. This shows the school spirit.(credits to RV photography club)

wenping

HAPPINESS

Happiness. A smiley face like the picture above is an icon for being happy

wenping

FEAR

Photo cred: Wenping

When you're the first to arrive from your class. The classroom is still dark, everything is quiet and you're all alone…

LIFE

Life, it's like a candle. It's only ending point is when either the flame is extinguished or the candle fully melted

wenping

Wienna's December Holidays Reflection

During the dec hols last year, my family and I went for a holiday to Taiwan and Kukup, malaysia. I will share about what I did at Kukup. We sat for a 2hr ride to Kukup in a van. I went together with my cousins and friends. It was a very exciting trip and all of us could not wait to get there. Went we eventually got to Kukup, we were stunned as we witnessed a very different setting. Unlike Singapore, kukup was still very old and it was a fishing village. We were very interested and so we went for a walk around our resort. We sat on a boat, taking us to a fishing place where they caught many fishes. There was a special type of fish, which was very clever. It was able to splash water accurately at a specific thing. It amazed me at how these fishes were so clever. The host there was a very young boy and he was very friendly. All of us were shocked at how young he was because he spoke like an adult and said everything in detail. We were then brought around and went back to our resort. After seeing the fishing place, my cousins, my friends, my brother and I decided to try fishing on our own. Well, we did not have the right equipment to fish, so we decided to work with what we have. We were lucky to have found a fishing string which was relatively long. Unfortunately, it was not long enough to be in the water. My brother then suggested we attached the stick to a wooden chopstick and it worked! We used dried anchovy as the bait (from our nasik lemak haha) and went ahead with our idea. There werent many fishes in the water as the water was not very clean. However, a few fishes spotted our bait and came for it but once they touched the dried anchovy, they swam away like it was really disgusting. We were all disappointed but were laughing at how the fishes were so scared of the anchovy and decided to play card games in our room. We sang karaoke and ate a delicious barbequed dinner. One thing i disliked about kukup was there were flies literally everywhere. After our great dinner, we bought firecrackers and sky lanterns to light up at night. It was my first time seeing firecrackers and I was so excited. We all witnessed how beautiful the sky lanterns (i did put them up in taiwan as well) were and were so happy when we finally got to witness the firecrackers. It was also one of my cousins' birthday that day and we bought a cake and celebrated there. We sat there, looking at the beautiful night sky and playing with more fire poppers and such. The next day, it was our time to leave and we were all sad that we had to leave Kukup. I am really looking forward to another trip like this in the future! :)