Chinese Lunar New Year 2014 in Singapore

Once upon a time there was a monster called Nian. He lived in the mountains and was sleeping in his cave trough 364 days. On the last day of the year, at new years eve he woke up and was very-very hungry. He decided to go to the nearest village to find some food. He was willing to eat anything so in lack of other choice he started to hunt human beings. People were very scared and on this night they locked their doors and was trembling inside. One day, an old wise man suggested the villagers to collaborate against this bold monster. So people started to beat drums, decorate their houses with red decorations, light fireworks and fire crackers to threaten the Nian. They recognised these things scare the monster, so they practice it every year on the Lunar New Year to keep him away.

Chinese people greet each other as : Xin Nian Hao which means: "new year good" literally.
It's easy to be confused about the terms and wishes during this season. If you were happy to know at least one line to greet people in Chinese I have to say that it is not a big deal! They have plenty of greetings to use and more variations of each :D Very confusing! For example, you can see the line of: Gong Xi Fa Cai ( Happy New Year) everywhere. But there are similar sounding lines as Gong Hei Fat Choy!(Wishing you wealth), or Gong He Xin Xi!
Xin Nian Kuai Le is also very popular, but some people say it is not trendy! For me it's pretty cool that I could even notice three of them :D

In 2014 we are celebrating the year of Horse! Accordingly the whole city has been decorated with horse sculptures, and everybody is "galloping towards the prosperity"! Preparation has started one month prior the big 31 January date. Markets, shops streets are filled with the colours and tastes of the festival.It marks the beginning of spring also(Spring festival).
Flowers,
-mandarin trees,
-fortune trees,
-red envelopes (ang bao, or hong bao),
-red decorations: paper cutlets and duilian (couplets) with the sign of "fu"(good fortune), longevity, happiness;
-pudding cake (nian gao),
-lion dance
are the essentials of a real Chinese New year celebration.

Nian Gao

I have seen many related videos, mostly parodies about this occasion. I had the feeling that however it is all about fun, but sometimes it can be a drag as well. For example the custom of giving Ang Bao to each other. Generally elder gives it to the young, or married couples to single person. They put some money in the envelopes, Singaporeans made fun of the amount it may contains ,that only two dollars. Parents wants to take their hands on it immediately in the name of " I will save it for you my son"..Unmarried people have to listen the questions over and over again like : " Why are you not married yet or even found a boyfriend/girlfriend?" Therefor it is not rare that singles hire fake partners to attend on their family event!This is the time for families to meet each other(reunion dinner), so everyone has to face with uncomfortable questions and situations they say.. :) Here is my favourite video about how to survive the CNY :D

After all, we should speak about the other customs, I would call them the Do's and Do not's of the CNY. First and the most important is, that:
Do not clean the house! As you would swipe out the luck!
Do not quarrel and say bad words!
Do not cry!
Do not wash your hair( as you wash out of your good fortune( as the hair word in Chinese similar to the fortune -fa- word).
Turn the "fu" sign upside down if u have on your door,

because it will mean, that the fortune has arrived ("fu dao")!
Ang baos ( envelopes) must be given in pair!
Wear red clothes to scare off the Nian!