I have been accumulating pictures for this blog post since I got back from Texas in early January. This is my first time to truly experience a Chinese New Year. This is how someone explained it to me: CNY is like Thanksgiving and Christmas combined! Now that is one important holiday! This is a long post, I know. So much to show you!
Every inch of KL was and is still decorated for CNY! CNY was on February 19. This is Suria Mall, near the Petronas Towers.
This is across the street from the Pavilion Mall. It might be another mall. There are SO many malls in KL, that is is hard for me to keep them all straight.
This was the very first piece of CNY decor I saw, in my building lobby. It is a cherry blossom tree.
You will also see these red lanterns hung all over the city.
And many stores had CNY decorations and merchandise for sale.
This is now the Year of the Goat. Or the ram. Or the sheep. The word I see used the most is goat. It seems that the symbol for this year means a horned sheep or goat. Not very clear. By the way, it is not considered desirable to be born in the Year of the Goat. So, one newscaster I saw suggested that people may hold off having a child in this year! Desirable or not, there are goats everywhere.
The middle of Bangsar Shopping Center was transformed by giant bird cages and tons of lanterns and flowers.
The flowers you see the most are cherry blossoms and peonies. I think of all the many decorations I saw, these are my favorite.
These are beautiful gift baskets, ready for the giving.
Another thing I found interesting was the merchandising done for CNY, just like Christmas! Special tins from Mrs. Garrett popcorn, CNY packaging for Coke and M&Ms, special bags from Starbucks and H&M, and my favorite? A Prosperity Ayam (looked like some sort of burger) from McDonald's!
The goats in front of the Intermark Hotel win 'The Fluffiest' award.
A stage set up for performances in Suria Mall. Unfortunately I never caught any of the performances presented in the malls around the city.
But I did make it to a CNY party! Our friends had a lady from Singapore prepare these salads for us to toss, very much a CNY tradition. But a Southeast Asia tradition, like Singapore and Malaysia. This is not commonly done in China.
Every ingredient has a meaning. Such as health, wealth, happiness, prosperity, youthful looks, success. A lot of things to do with success and prosperity.
Everyone digs in and participates in the tossing!
There was a two-page list of the ingredients and their significance.
Krystal, hostess Andreina, and me
This display is in front of Avenue K mall. The reason I included it? It is the first display that I saw that was mainly pink and not red.
All the pictures above were taken in KL. The following pictures were taken in Singapore, where we spent the actual CNY.
This was taken in the Orchid Garden, part of the Singapore Botanical Gardens.
This was at the Paragon Mall on Orchard Street in Singapore.
CNY display at the Calvin Klein store. Pretty much all the CNY displays in Singapore were much more subtle and subdued in Singapore. Which I don't get. Malaysia is like 30% Chinese, where Singapore is 76% Chinese! I would have expected a lot more in Singapore.
Side note: I was looking forward to celebrating Christmas in the US after being in Oman for the last two Christmases. Guess what?? Muslim Malaysia did a way better job of decorating for Christmas and playing lots of wonderful Christmas music than the American malls I went to.
Chinatown in Singapore
Lots of goats/sheep/rams
This was the one performance I did see and was very happy about it. Below is the lion dance. The performance was done in front of our hotel. Funny thing is that we had done a Hop On Hop Off tour earlier in the day. We saw this same group of performers at another hotel. I was disappointed to have missed them! And lo and behold, they were are our hotel! I bet these guys had a very busy day.
That drum was very loud.
Well, these fireworks were seen from my dining room. These are not huge, professional events, but very pretty and impressive. I live on the 17th floor, and I can't tell you the number of firework displays I see from my apartment. And with fireworks being a way to celebrate CNY, I saw four or five displays this night alone, even though is was past CNY!
So ends my blog post on CNY. I didn't go into all the traditions of the season. Too much to say. This is a link to more information on the holiday.
Gong Xi Fa Chai everyone!
