Let’s Celebrate! Chinese New Year Holiday Guide
The Year of the Rooster is almost here and if you are planning to stay in Singapore to usher in the New Year with your family or if you didn’t plan your holiday getaway in time, fret not! There are plenty of things to do to entertain the kids from Chinese New Year performances, workshops, arts & crafts activities to holiday camps!
The streets are abuzz with dazzling lights and sculpted lanterns of roosters, hens and chicks in anticipation of Chinese New Year. Watch the electrifying and vibrant nightly performances including dances, cultural performances, songs and music that take place daily during the festive season. Take the kids to see the beautiful light-up designs and visit the festive street bazaars selling traditional New Year goodies, decorations, clothes, preserved fruit, plants and more. Don’t forget to go to the Chinatown Wishing Tree where the kids can hang a “Make a Wish” card (cost $2) on the banyan tree. It’s a great opportunity for the kids to experience and learn more about this festive holiday.
If there is one percussion instrument all kids can relate to, it’s a set of drums. Take your kids to watch the extremely talented Nanyang Polytechnic Chinese Orchestra Percussion Ensemble and let them enjoy listening to traditional Chinese tunes being pounded away on fiery red drum sets.
Auspicious Lion Dance Performance
As Chinese New Year approaches, performers across Singapore don the traditional lion costume and gear up to groove to the sounds of music. But why should you take your kids to watch just any lion dance when you can take them to see a performance by 2016’s National Lion Dance Champions, the Singapore Yiwei Athletic Association. Did we mention it’s free!
It is very entertaining to watch a well practiced Lion Dance but what would be even more fun would be to join in the action. Let your little ones join in the Chinese New Year activities and capture the true essence of the traditional dance by donning animal masks and learning the basic steps.
Child’s Play: Mandarin Adventure
What is the history behind Chinese New Year? Is Nian a ferocious beast who causes trouble wherever he goes? Learn the answers to these questions and more through a fun and unique exploratory performance. Kids aged 7-10 years can absorb the intricacies of Mandarin through this interactive storytelling experience. Clearly, learning a language doesn’t always have to be tedious and boring.
This kid-sized city is a blast for little ones on any normal day but this Chinese New Year, it has amped up its entertainment by adding various holiday themed attractions. Upon entry, each kid can grab an Hongbao containing complimentary kidzos and participate in various programmes including calligraphy workshops and traditional role-play activities at the Acting Academy. Finish the visit by watching an eenthralling ion Dance City Parade and exciting Wushu performances.
The last resort for keeping those bundles of energy busy is to register them at a fun holiday camp. The sporty ones will get a ‘kick’ out of the Milan Soccer School CNY camp or can learn to shoot hoops at the LJE Sports basketball camp. The creatively inclined ones can try the popular themed art camps at Abrakadoodle.