Where To Go Next for Friday, February 8

Today's Travel News

New Year’s a la Singapore

By Rich Steck & Judi Janofsky

When it comes to celebrating the New Year, the Singaporean Chinese do it right.

While much of the world parties till midnight on the 31st of December, toasts the new year with a flute of champagne, then spends the next day recovering from a celebratory hangover, Chinese Singaporeans’ joyfully celebrate their new year with weeks of spectacular celebrations. Boasting one of the largest Chinese populations outside of mainland China, Singapore is renowned for its elaborate Chinese New Year celebrations.

Chinatown becomes a riot of color during the weeks of the Chinese New Year in Singapore.

Their new year, the 2008 “Year of the Rat,” begins officially on February 7, but the welcoming festivities start in late January and run through March. It’s a celebration of the coming of spring and a fresh start to one’s life. Spectacular events include the massive all-night “Parade of Dreams;” plus a host of cultural performances; a visit from the “God of Fortune;” the annual Chinatown “light up,” and unusual seasonal culinary delights at more than 500 “hawker stalls.”

They call the festival surrounding the Chinese New Year Chun Jie, but they also call it Nian, after the legendary Nian monster which would come down from the mountains to hunt villagers on the first and 15th day of the month. To scare Nian away, the villagers would mount a ferocious cacophony of drums and gongs, burning bamboo torches and exploding fireworks. Much of the pageantry of today’s parades and performances are symbolic tributes to the bravery and traditions of those mythical villagers.

...More

Strong Places for Weak Dollar

United No Longer Friendly

Food a la Alabama

Tips & Bits

Mushing’s No Picnic

Accommodations

Destinations