Today is the third day of Chinese New Year. In Singapore, there are only two days of public holidays given for the Chinese New Year. However, from the customary and traditional perspective, Chinese New Year is supposed to be celebrated as a fifteen days affair.
During these fifteen days, the Chinese will try to make efforts to visit relatives and friends. I know from a friend who lives in the People's Republic of China that there is a full fifteen days of public holidays set aside for the Chinese New Year in China. During this time, people who left their hometown to work in the cities will usually set time aside to return to their hometown to visit their love-ones.
Back in Singapore, please bear in mind that there is only two days of public holidays given for the Chinese New Year. For people in Singapore who wishes to continue visiting their relatives and celebrating the Chinese New Year after the first and second days of the Chinese New Year, they will usually have to take leave from their official duties (i.e. work).
It is the third day of the Chinese New Year. Most offices have resumed operations. So did mine. Yet, we practically had only half the regular strength today. At least 8 staff members out of 13 were not in office. Six of the eight persons took leave today, while two are working on part-time basis and today was their non-working day. You bet the office was very quiet today.
The strange thing is that even though one of my supposedly long session this afternoon was cancelled at the last moment, I was still pretty occupied on a seemingly quiet day. There is so much waiting to be done. I still have quite a lot of things unfinished on my in-tray. To cope, I have learned to do important and urgent things first. The rest of my colleagues who were in office also seemed to have a pretty busy day.
Having lunch also became a challenge today. Most of the food stalls nearby my workplace were operated by Chinese. It turned out that only about 40% of the food stalls in the neighbourhood was opened for business this afternoon. This 40% includes the stalls operated by the non-Chinese. Many of the food stalls that were opened had long queues. In the end, I settled for vegetarian food for my lunch. It did not have a queue when I was there, and I had wanted a meal with vegetables for my lunch.
As such, perhaps it is not too wrong for me to infer that most Chinese do wish to celebrate Chinese New Year beyond the designated two days of public holidays. Looking at how things have been for the past years, however, it seems very unlikely that the public holidays for Chinese New Year will be extended beyond the two days.
If anyone wants to celebrate Chinese New Year for its full fifteen days of duration and decides to appeal for fifteen days of public holiday for the Chinese New Year, I think that he will get an answer similar to this: "You are welcome to celebrate Chinese New Year for as long as you would like to. This is your choice. Yet, for economic and practical reasons, only two days of public holidays could be granted for the Chinese New Year."
Maybe this is why a number of offices and eating places seem to be quite quiet today? The folks have been out celebrating?
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