It’s the Year of the Dragon. Firstly, I wish all my readers a Happy Chinese New Year! May the Year of the Dragon bring you peace, prosperity, and good health.

I planned a visit to Pou Chong, Tiretti Bazaar at 9:00 AM to cover the Dragon and Lion Dancing.

It started with the group called Chinatown, dancing outside Tung Nam, and they then moved into Pou Chong for their next show. Unlike last year, we got to see quite a few performances, and it was lengthy and very nice! The next group that arrived was the very popular Shining Star. They had some great costumes and put on a great show.

We had a lot of fun and the performances which I experienced this year, we’re some of the best I’ve seen.

Once we were done, we headed to Kervin’s house; his family celebrates Chinese New Year. We received some very nice Chinese cookies and gifts.

For lunch, we stopped at Tung Fong. There’s no better way to celebrate Chinese New Year than having Chinese food!

The next stop would be the Chinese New Year Carnival at Pei May Chinese High School, Tangra, on the 12th to 13th of February, 2024.

P.S. I don’t perform for Shining Star, I just wore their T-Shirt! 😂

Second Update 12.02.2024: We went to Pei May High School. It was good as usual. Less crowded than last year, but that was probably because it just started at 5pm and it was the first day. We had momos and baos from Pou Chong. We tried a deep fried rice cake dish with a home made sauce. We had beef meat balls. It was nice!

They had stalls selling various items such as dragon soft toys, keychains, jewellery etc. Most were really over priced.

When we were about to leave after booking an Uber I ran into a very old friend, Francis. We were best friends in college and got busy with work and lost touch for more than 5 years!

Altogether, it was a good experience just like last year. I would say, even better than last year.

Fun Fact: Dragons in Chinese culture symbolize great power, good luck and strength. They represent power and authority, particularly control over typhoons, water, rainfall and floods. Emperors were assumed to have descended from the dragons. That is why, out of the twelve zodiac signs, the Dragon is the most popular one.

Note: All the images present in this coverage are copyrighted and owned by Craig Gomes. If you wish to use these images or have any inquiries, you are advised to get in touch through craiggomes.com