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User::sandbox/Chinese New Year in Singapore

Chinese New Year in Singapore is celebrated annually in Singapore which begins from the last day of the last month of the Chinese calendar, and ends on the 15th day of the first month (also known as Lantern Festival).

Background: Singapore is a diverse immigrant country with a mix of foreign languages, religions, culture and customs. The Chinese ethnic group，or Chinese Singaporean accounts for almost 75% of Singapore's resident population. Also, Chinese is an official language in Singapore,by that means the Chinese language(Mandarin, Cantonese, Hokkien, Shanghainese dialect etc.) is widely spoken by half the population as their home language or second language.

Chinese New Year celebrations in Singapore start way before the festival arrives. Families start to shop for new year goods, decorate their homes and do their spring cleaning before the New Year comes. Symbolically,It is the tradition for every family to thoroughly clean their homes to “sweep away” any ill-fortune, making way for the arrival of good luck. Also, Chinese New Year brings people together, and is marked by visits to kin, relatives and friends, a practice known simply as "new-year visits". On the eve of the Chinese New Year, families will eat their reunion dinner which signifies the reunion of the family. Most Singaporean families will have a steamboat dinner for their reunion dinner.

Singaporeans are only entitled to 2 days of public holidays for this festival. During these 2 days, families will go around paying visits to their relatives and friends. Married couples will give red packets to the children. The red packets signifies blessing from the adults.

Public celebration: Singapore bursts with all sorts of activities and events during Chinese New Year each year. The centrepiece of the festivities is the unique Chingay Parade (South East Asia), a grand carnival-like street parade with dazzling floats, thrilling spectacles like fire-eaters, magicians and sizzling dance acts. However, to accommodate more spectators, it is held on the expansive grounds of the Formula One Pit Building alongside the Marina waterfront(Marina Square).