Carnival to Chinese New Year–what could be better? After spending 4 days partying it up at Carnival, we moved on to Singapore (with a short stop-off in Tokyo) and we were greeted with by a Chinese Year Party at our friend’s house–with a table full of New Year cookies, sweet bar-b-que pork jerky, Indonesian cakes, and abundant drink.

Chinese New Year is quite different from the New Years we celebrate on December 31st. It is an ancient Chinese tradition whose date usually falls in early February but this   is determined each year by the Lunar calendar. The celebration lasts 15 days, but in Singapore only the first 2 are national holidays. Almost all countries in Asia celebrate it due to the high population of Chinese immigrants, but the party is the biggest and longest in China where everyone has off for all 15 days and the whole country travels to be with their relatives. Food is abundant during this time as they believe you must have extra to guarantee prosperity during the coming year.

The celebrations are quite interesting, and can be seen all over the city. Red Chinese lanterns are hung in houses and businesses along with red banners and traditional Chinese knots. The malls (which is basically all there is in Singapore) are stuffed full of people snatching up the New Year deals. Also there are dragon and lion dance performances all over the city, some of which feature two people on posts 7 feet off the ground.. jumping from one post to another. On the 7th night there was a huge parade featuring thousands of people from different parts of Asia on beautiful floats. Chinese New Year definitely is the best time to visit Singapore!