Few days from now, one of the most colorful & extravagant festival will be celebrated all over the world - it's the Chinese New Year. For some it's known as the Lunar New Year or the Spring Festival; these names do mean the same festival.
For this round of My Picture Day, I figured to show a photo story of how our Chinese friends prepare & celebrate the Lunar New year. My pictures are days earlier than the actual festivity, so think of it as a glimpse of the actual celebration.
Yesterday, I went to the place where the event will take place, it's the Chinatown in Singapore. Even though the event haven't started yet, this place is already crowded and I can already feel the festive vibe. Head's up, the pictures might cause your aggression to surge ~ if you're a bull ;-)
I always knew that crowd will pour in this weekend and so I arrived early, it turned out to be true. During normal days, this late afternoon is not so crowded, and now? It's the opposite.
The layout of Singapore's Chinatown is arranged in a grid pattern, which means there are many of these passages and intersections. The photos above are from different alleys, they look the same but they're not. I really don't know the boundaries of the Chinatown but for as long as there are lanterns above me then I'm still inside the area, hehe.
For this 2018 Spring Festival, it will be the year of the Dog. Which means that aside from the traditional Lunar new year tokens and merchandise, the prominent items are about the animal that represents this year.
While walking along the alleys, I noticed the a number of new food stalls that are selling the same ground nuts like chestnuts. I was told that these nuts are served as wishes for good profit for the coming year; in Madarin the chestnuts are called "lizi".
In my stroll, I also noticed few street performers that only show during this time of the year.
Flute artist playing Chinese traditional instrumental music
Chinese calligraphy artist with his paint brush & gold ink
Within the area of Chinatown, I also found the most astounding temple I've seen in my life, the Tooth Relic Buddha Temple. If you happen to visit Singapore's Chinatown, it will never be complete without a tour to this temple. The exterior is as amazing as the interior. Let me show you around.
The temple is just beside the street so you can visit it and take a picture of the exterior at any time while the visit to the interior is limited to 7:00am to 7:00pm only. It's better to put this early on your schedule so as not to miss-out this part. Believe it or not, it's my first time to go inside the temple even though I've been living in Singapore for almost 5 years. I was thrilled & curious on what interesting things to find.
I was particularly astounded by the amount of detail that was placed on every space of the walls & ceiling of this temple. The quality of work was so intricate that I could not see any artifacts on every details, every bit of it is consistent.
So, that's about it for this week #mypictureday and I hope you had fun strolling with me in Chinatown. As much as I want to stay and take more photos of the area, the crowd is getting more and there was no place for me to set-up my photography. It may seem early, but I called it a day. For sure, I will be coming back soon to take more pictures of the scene and will be sharing it you my fellow Steemians.
To end this post, I'd like to take this opportunity to greet our Chinese friends.
Wish you happiness and prosperity in the coming year.
祝您新的一年快乐幸福。
All original photos by author 