Being ethnically Chinese, “Happy new year!” or “新年快乐” is always said on two occasions; once on the 1st of January and on Chinese New Year. To me, the latter celebration always held a more significant place in my heart.
Chinese New Year has a history dating back to 3500 years and although the exact date from which this celebration began is unknown, it is believed to have started in the Shang Dynasty (1600-1046BC). As you can imagine, this celebration holds a tremendous amount of cultural importance to all ethnically Chinese people around the world. It is a tradition of utmost importance to spend 除夕夜, or New Year’s Eve, with your extended family eating 年夜饭, a reunion dinner.
Now you can imagine my disbelief last year when I found out that the Chinese New Year break would only start on 除夕, New Year’s Eve. I remember running calculations in my head: school ends at 3pm on Fridays. It takes roughly forty mins to get to Changi, four and a half hours to reach Taiwan, and around an hour and a half to get from 桃园（Tao Yuan airport) to 天母 (my neighbourhood in Taiwan). By that time, it’d be at least 9 pm. Realization dawned on me. There was no way we could make it back to Taiwan in time for the reunion dinner. I practically begged my parents to let my brother and I skip the last day of school but they wouldn’t allow it.
“What if you learn something important that day, and don’t you have a test?”
I couldn’t believe it. The frustration I felt was so immense that I wanted to storm into the High School office and demand that we get let off a day earlier. I talked to some of my friends about it but none of them really understood how devastated I was. Some even talked about how they hoped the CNY break wouldn’t shorten the summer vacation. Having school on Chinese New Year Eve can be compared to having school on Christmas Eve. If we have so much time for the festivities of Christmas (a celebration which not everyone even supports) - so much that we get off a week in advance - then why can’t we be at least let off on time for Chinese New Year?
In my Chinese lesson, my peers and I discussed this topic with our teacher. I was shocked to learn that some years ago, students were only given three days for the Chinese New Year break. Three days to complete the traditional16 days of celebrations. Three days including travel to wherever the students celebrate Chinese New Year and then quickly back to Singapore. My teacher went on to explain that it was only after multiple complaints from the Chinese parents that the school reluctantly loosened its hold, finger by finger on the extra week of summer to allow a one-week long holiday for the most culturally important festival of the year.
Our school prides itself on being “a united, welcoming community that embraces students and their families from almost 100 different nations” where “diversity and inclusion increases the richness of ideas” and “creates an internationalist mindset and, most importantly, builds deep understanding and respect for others.” Yet the Chinese New Year break is just one example of the depreciation and in some cases exclusion of ethnic and religious holidays that are not predominantly celebrated by white people from the vacation calendar in our school. Others include Hari Raya Puasa, Hari Raya Haji, Deepavali, Day of the Dead, Ching Ming Festival and Vesak Day amongst many others. Although some are obligatory public holidays in Singapore, much of the student body and staff are not aware of the significance of these holidays and often just treat it as a day off from school. Being able to recognize this flaw in our community and making attempts to fix it will help us actually accomplish our goals in being an international community who deeply understands people from a multitude of cultures and embraces them.
Comments