Spring, It's Lunar New Year!

Spring has come to Singapore!

While many countries have the four seasons, Singapore has only three - hot, hotter and the hottest. In Chiangmai and Bangkok, Thailand, temperatures came down to 2 and 15 degrees respectively. Friends in Suzhou and Beijing, China told me it was as cold as minus 5 to minus 8 degrees. Even in Singapore, we are experiencing the most windy and coolest period this time of the year where it is actually spring during the Chinese Lunar New Year.

Sitting in an open space for food and a couple of cold beers after a golf game for an hour or so will make you feel so chilled by the last 15 minutes.

In many other places, the breeze has been gentle but incessant and one could feel it brushing against your face while standing by the window gazing out watching life goes by. It brings back fond memories during the childhood days gazing towards the playground watching others play. Those were days when Chinese New Year (CNY) means a lot to look forward to. The typical prelude would be many families busily setting up charcoal stoves outside their homes preparing and baking all kinds of various new year cookies like pineapple tarts, love letters (egg rolls), etc. T


he market place and the dried goods shops would be teeming with people buying fish and chickens (chickens being slaughtered and de-feathered was a common sight as was the practice then) and the other favourites like sea cucumber, abalone being traded.

What made the children excited were the sense of newness in everything and the anticipation of putting on new clothes, shoes, etc. having the whole home draped with new curtains. A new year brings about new hopes and wishes. Then there will be plenty to eat especially new year cookies and hongbao (red packets) to receive for good luck and of course the money to pocket. Moreover, playing with firecrackers and fireworks was fun and adds on to the festive climate.

But before all these could take place, Spring is also a time before CNY where you find many people doing "spring cleaning" to prepare and usher in the New Year. Some believe that this will bring you good luck and fortune but essentially, soring cleaning is really about re-arranging things and clearing cobwebs that gathered over time. Spring cleaning is dreaded because every nooks and crannies have to be cleaned. Drawers were cleared and given the once over and very often, people will discover some loose screws or keys and not knowing what they were for or which doors were for those keys, they would then keep them aside in case of future need for fear of discarding something which may turn out to be important.

These loose impediments of screws and keys are remnants of the past and represent our life, our thoughts, our fears, worries, biases, prejudices and unhappiness that we are no longer required to carry over into the New Year. Let them go with the past.

While we are ever so adamant and determine to clear physical cobwebs during spring cleaning, the real cobwebs which each of us need to clear which is far more important than the physical realms is to clear the cobwebs in our minds.

I urge you to join me in clearing the cobwebs in our minds which actually hinders us from making real progress in life, in your relationships, etc. Wrong perceptions, impressions, beliefs, prejudice and fears are things like cobwebs that entangled in our minds and hearts.

Clearing these cobwebs in them would lead to forgiveness, clarity of thoughts, feelings of newness and a sense of hope and well wishes. It's like putting on your new clothes and shoes.

Admittedly, as adults, that sense of pure joy has gone for many of us. Firecrackers have been long banned. Truly in life, we need to learn how to rediscover the joy of children and we can only do that with the eyes of children - seeing things without prejudice.

After all, Spring is a joyous time as we embrace the Lunar New Year of the Ox even as we are faced with the tough economic doom which is like the hard and cold conditions of winter.

However, as the breeze in spring blows forth, icicles will melt away. Where people closed their doors to hide from the biting cold outside, they will slowly come out to play.

The earth will be teeming with life again. People, animals, the birds and bees and rabbits will be out from their burrows from hibernation.

So will we as we learn to climb out from this economic slumber.

The Ox is reliable; slow but steady. Slow and steady wins the race.

As Yoda said: Triumph, we shall!

Happy New Year!

May the year of the Ox brings you and your family good health, great wealth, abundance, lots of love and happiness!