SINGAPORE WELCOMES CHINESE NEW YEAR

SINGAPORE, Jan., 2008 -- Boasting one of the largest Chinese populations per capita outside of the mainland, Singapore is renowned for its spectacular and elaborate Chinese New Year celebrations.  The kick-off to the 2008 Year of the Rat, which begins officially on February 7, will feature the biggest and best festivities yet, with the party running from late January through March across the island nation.

Festivities, listed in detail at www.visitsingapore/cny, include the massive, all-night “Parade of Dreams;” a host of cultural performances; a visit from the “God of Fortune;” the annual Chinatown “light up,” and unusual seasonal culinary delights at more than 500 “hawker stalls.”

Below are some highlights:

Chingay Parade Of Dreams

This all-night/next day party begins with a huge fireworks demonstration and features two full parades with more than 3,000 performers from around the world pushing, pulling or carrying magnificent parade floats in displays of amazing teamwork. Many floats are outrageously festooned in strobe lights and pyrotechnics.

The parade also includes traditional Singaporean lion dancers, stilt walkers, belly and hip-hop dancers, a “Love Boat” full of just-married couples, rock band performances, and cheerleaders performing gravity-defying stunts and much more.

Chinatown Celebrations

No section of Singapore throws itself harder into the celebration, of course, than Chinatown. Vibrant light displays, musical performances, fireworks, dragon dances and more fill the streets beginning three weeks before the actual day and continuing for two weeks after. Traditional foods – such as “waxed duck” and special New Year’s pastries – are on display in the “hawker stalls” and storefronts on Terengganu and Pagoda streets. Nightly cultural performances hit the stage in Kreta Ayer Square. The party goes into high gear on the eve of Chinese New Year, when revelers throng to Chinatown to partake in the countdown,