Its that time of the year again, where old friends meet and families get together! Every year, the Singapore Students' Association of Carnegie Mellon University organizes a grand Chinese New Year dinner in definitive Singapore style, and this year is no different. Come join in the fun and celebration as we usher in the Year of the Rooster.

What is Chinese New Year?

The most important festival in the Singaporean Chinese calendar is without doubt Chinese New Year, or Chun Jie. Literally meaning "spring festival" , Chun Jie symbolises the beginning of a new year, the signal to another fresh start in one's life. In the same way that spring ushers in a new period of growth and vitality in the world of nature, Chun Jie heralds fresh hopes for happiness and prosperity among mankind.

Chinese New Year is also important because it is a time for reaffirming family and kinship ties. Family reunion dinners, visitations among relatives and friends and exchange of gifts - all these serve to remind the Chinese of the central position the family occupies in the society. The festival is so deep-rooted that it is celebrated with fanfare in all parts of the world which have large congregations of the Chinese community. Traditionally, Chun Jie is celebrated over a period of 15 days starting from the first day of the first month of the lunar calendar.

Preparations for the New Year begin as early as one month before the festival. It is customary for Chinese families to do a general spring cleaning of their homes to make sure that the house is spick and span for the New Year visits by relatives and friends. In the hope of obtaining good fortune in the coming year, some families make it a point to put up chun lian (spring couplets) at their doorways.

For this year, Chinese New Year begins on February 9th 2005.

Events for the Dinner

Yu Sheng

A major highlight of SSA's Chinese New Year Dinner is the uniquely Singaporean Yu Sheng. Symbolizing rising fortune, starting the year with Yu Sheng fortells good luck for the months to come. As guests add the main ingredients onto the plate, auspicious sayings are shouted out for all to hear. Finally, everybody uses chopsticks to raise the condiments high up into the air, bringing the "Yu" (synonymous with surplus) in with a bang.

In the mid-1960s, four master chefs - known in local food circles as the four Heavenly Kings - were jointly responsible for creating a Singaporean culinary tradition by transforming a humble roadside hawker dish into a colourful, tasty and auspicious festive food.

Taking the raw fish slices used in simple fish porridge as their primary ingredient, they invented Yu Sheng, a dish that symbolises for Singaporeans the birth of a new year. Add to this shredded lettuce, carrots, red and yellow ginger, jellyfish, and link everything togethr with a sour-sweet sauce made from vinegar, plum sauce, salt and sugar.

Steamboat

Nothing brings people together better than a meal over the steamboat. Gather around the hot pot, and dip the delectable ingredients into a heady chicken broth. Everybody cooks, and everybody gets to share in the feasting. Conversations flow as smoothly as the soup flowing down your throat; Chinese tradition at its finest.

Eating steamboat, or hot pot, has a deep and profound meaning to the Chinese, who are gregarious and strongly emphasize family and clan. It is cozy, yet informal. It's not a banquet, yet it can take as much time as one.

For this year's steamboat, look forward to good old standbys like prawns, crabsticks, fishballs and meatballs. There will also be golden mushrooms, chicken meat, cabbage and more.

See you there!