Chinatown Chinese New Year Celebrations 2010

Chun Jie (春节), or “Spring Festival”, represents the start of the new Chinese Lunar New Year, and Singapore celebrates it in style. This is a great time for visitors to immerse in the festivities, and experience Singapore’s rich cultural heritage, from shopping for Chinese New Year goodies, to partaking in lo hei – a Singaporean Chinese New Year tradition of tossing yusheng (raw fish salad) for prosperity.

This year, Chinatown Chinese New Year Celebrations 2010 will thrive on the theme, “Celebration of Spring” (花开富贵、迎春接福). The festive celebrations aim to enliven Chinatown, engage the Chinese community, new citizens, other ethnic groups and tourists in preserving traditional Chinese customs and heritage, through its plethora of programme that enthralls both the young and old alike. The celebrations will bring out the atmosphere of Spring in its festive decorations and celebratory events, heralding a year of new beginning and spreading the festive cheer.

Chinatown Chinese New Year Celebrations 2010 key events include:

Chinatown International Lion Dance Competition on Friday, 22 January,

Chinatown Chinese New Year Celebrations 2010 Official Light-Up and Opening Ceremony on Saturday, 23 January,

Street Light-Up from 23 January to 7 March,

Festive Street Bazaar from 23 January to 13 February,

Nightly Stage Shows from 23 January to 13 February,

Chinatown Chinese New Year Celebrations 2010 Countdown on 13 February

and Chinatown Yuan Xiao Jie on 28 February.

KA-KS CCC is organizing Celebration of Spring By The River (春花盛开溢河畔) to spread the festivities of Chinese New Year to the Singapore River precinct on Fridays and Saturdays from 22 January to 16 February 2010. Highlights of activities include festive illumination and peach blossoms decorations of Read Bridge as well as weekly performances like calligraphy masters’ demonstration of ‘giant’ character writing to the accompaniment of live Chinese instrumental music and audience will have the opportunity to participate by trying their hands on calligraphy, traditional stilt walkers performing acrobatics and fire stunts, contemporary ‘velocity’ juggling acts on the bridge. Visitors on the river banks as well as river cruise passengers will also be delighted by the decorated boats operated by Singapore River Cruises and DUCKtours as they ply the waterway of the historic Singapore River. As an added highlight, there will be a lion dance performance on board selected cruises, once a week. Revellers can catch dazzling 2-minute fireworks above the skies of Clarke Quay on 23 & 30 January and 6 & 13 February 2010. Other festivities at Central and Liang Court, part of the Night Out initiatives, will add buzz to the precinct.

Dr Lily Neo, Member of Parliament for Jalan Besar GRC and Adviser to the Kreta Ayer-Kim Seng Grassroots Organisations, said: “Many people enjoy Chinatown Chinese New Year celebrations, which have become a real highlight in Singapore’s calendar of events. Not only does it reach out to our Chinese community, it’s an opportunity for the other ethnic communities, new citizens and tourists to join in the celebrations and experience Chinese culture and traditions. For the first time, we are also spreading the festive cheer to the Singapore River by organizing “Celebration of Spring by the River”, a series of performances on Read Bridge, fireworks displays and festive illumination by the river.”

The Chinatown Chinese New Year Celebrations 2010 is organised by Kreta Ayer-Kim Seng Citizens’ Consultative Committee with support from the Singapore Tourism Board, People’s Association, Central Singapore Community Development Council, Tote Board and Chinatown Business Association. The Main Sponsor is Resorts World Sentosa. The Festival Partners are Tiger Beer, Coca Cola and Lee Foundation. The Official Card is NETS and the Media Partner is MediaCorp Channel 8.

Photos: Eugene Tang/SingaporeSights. All Rights Reserved.