A Haunting Spring Festival Celebration

By Nashwa Binte Muhammad Salman Sec 2F

Celebrating Chinese New Year in school this year was a huge difference from that of the Chinese New Year celebrations that took place last year. Ever since the pandemic plagued the world, restrictions were announced that made it difficult for large-scale celebrations. So just like most countries around the world, we celebrated Chinese New Year virtually.

Each class celebrated the Spring Festival in their own way, reined in by social distancing restrictions. There was a virtual concert. Two hosts brought us through each and every performance by the Performing Arts CCAs. The Guzheng performance was extraordinarily relaxing as the girls clad in blue shimmery costumes strummed haunting tunes. I was taken aback by that relaxing masterpiece as everyone surely worked extremely hard for it to sound so harmonised. The second performance was by the Modern Dance group. The song choice piqued my interest and their moves were unique and funky. I truly enjoyed their performance. Despite these wonderful performances, the warmth of hearing the strains of laughter that could be experienced during the previous Chinese New Year celebrations was not palpable this year, through the virtual celebration.

There was no lion dance ushering the New Year. There was no song and dance in the hall. There was no congregation usually associated with celebrations. The joyous spirit was largely absent. It is strangely reminiscent of what happened many years ago in 1942 when Singapore did not celebrate Chinese New Year. What is most poignant is that this muted celebration can be aptly summarised by what Amanda Chan of Sec 2F said,

“I have learnt to treasure what I have taken for granted. It is the ability to converse as we wish, the ability to mingle with whoever we wish, and the freedom to celebrate as we wish.”

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