Chinese New Year in Malaysia

I know that there is Chinese New Year; every year I always here about the Lion and Dragon dance, Tikoy and Chinese calendars... those were the things that I knew of and for me it was just an ordinary day.

Now that we had the chance to celebrate Chinese New Year in another country, the story changed.  It was more than the Lion and Dragon Dance and Red Chinese Dresses; now I knew that it is the most important traditional Chinese Holiday.  It was also known as the “Spring Festival”.

Being here in Malaysia where there are many Chinese people means we have the opportunity to experience Chinese New year with them.  First off, we had two days holiday because of this [thanks a lot :)] and we had the chance to spend holidays to where we can celebrate Chinese New Year.

We started to celebrate CNY with our very own Movie Nights, movie nights with chicken and pizza.  Since I am working with Chinese people I learned about the beauty of Ang Pao and Mandarin.

Ang Pao is one of the Chinese Tradition during Chinese New Year and is called “Red Envelopes”.  Ang Paos are given by married people to single people and kids for good luck. It was also believed that money inside the envelope should be an even number because odd number is for funerals.  Anyways, that’s just a belief.  What’s important is the luck in giving Ang Pao :).

Mandarin (ponkan or kiat kiat in Pinas) is also one of the famous presents during Chinese New Year.  They say that it’s for luck and prosperity, with its color it’s like gold.

Our next journey for our Chinese New Year Celebration was at Berjaya Time Square where their theme was “Spring Blossom”.  The Cherry Blossom stands proudly at 50.46 feet holding 398,998 blooming blossoms with spanning at 20.6 feet entitled recognition in Malaysia’s Book of Record.

According to Mr. Tan Mun Choy (Chairman of Berjaya)... “We wanted a fresh and light as breeze concept to usher in the Year of the Dragon and the biggest tree with flowers in full bloom in perfect!”

When we were there, we had the chance to watch the Acrobatic Performance. They were very amazing; I was just speechless while I was watching them perform because they were very flexible and light.  I felt that the discipline in them is so strong that they were able to do those acts.

This was a 30 min Acrobatic Performance. This was just the intro :)

We also had the chance to watch the Chinese Cultural Dance. 
Of course we can never miss the photo opp with the Golden Dragon!

After which we decided to have our dinner in a Chinese Restaurant to experience it on a Chinese New Year but we failed to find one! Awww.   After our long tiring walk in China Town where we were not able to find any Chinese Resto, we then ate at Piccadilly. :p

The following day, we went to One Utama to witness their Dragon and Lion Dance.  The Dragon Dance’ movements symbolize historical roles of dragons demonstrating power and dignity.  Dragons are believed to bring good luck to people, which are reflected in their qualities that include great power, dignity, fertility, wisdom and auspiciousness. 

Another was the Lion Dance, it was believed that Lion can drove away bad spirits and bring luck and fortune.

At that time we were still looking for a Chinese Restaurant to eat and have Yee Sang and now we were lucky.  We didn’t find a Chinese Restaurant but managed to find Yee Sang. 

Yee Sang is also called as the Properity Toss.  It usually consists of strips of raw fish (most commonly salmon), mixed with shredded vegetables and a variety of sauces and condiments.  Yee Sang is a symbol of abundance, prosperity and vigor. 

All ingredients are mixed together and it will be tossed all together while saying thanks and wishes.


This Yee Sang was when we had our CNY Dinner in EPS.

Generally, Chinese New Year always brings us hope that every year there are always new beginnings to fulfil our dreams.  We may believe that luck is not always the key to achieve our goals but it is our belief of luck that keeps us all going and believing.