If you’ve been out shopping at the start of the year, it’s probably difficult to miss the increasing bombardment of the Chinese Lunar New Year.

Along with the trashing of cymbals and drums, Lunar New Year in Singapore is also marked by the transformation of the many Chinese-owned shops as they don the traditional festive colours of red, gold and orange.

Whether you’re new to Singapore, or have lost touch with tradition, here are some sure ways to get into the mood and enjoy the festivities just like the locals.

Act and think Chinese

What are the customs to adhere to, and faux pas to avoid, during the Lunar new year festivities? These are important questions that need to be addressed if you wish to blend in with your Chinese buddies.

To understand Chinese New Year - and the beliefs it entails - is to understand the history of Chinese society. Here is a brief guide on things to do - and to avoid - whether you're just observing or partaking in the festivities.

Home Decor

The preceding weeks leading to the Chinese New Year are usually some of the busiest for families - housewives in particular. Just like in Christmas, shopping has become an almost compulsory activity during Chinese New Year and considerable time, effort and money is spent picking suitable gifts for loved ones. But for Chinese homeowners, a great deal also goes into domestic decorations.

If you’re an expat or foreigner living in Singapore, here’s a recommended purchase list to dress up your home to welcome Chinese guests for visits - or just to invite some of the auspicious luck into your own home.

Visit the nursery (not the one with babies in them, but the horticultural nursery). This is the best time to decorate your home with some auspicious flora or buy some new potted plants decorated with red ribbons.

Why red? Simply because the colour red represents good luck in the Chinese culture.

For vases, buy large stalks of pussy willow. It represents the coming of Spring and is a popular purchase among Chinese homeowners for its beautiful furry silver buds, which can last for months with very little maintenance. Many families dress their pussy willow stalks with velvet bottle washer wires in other colours or red ribbons. For more delicate blooms, peach or cherry blossoms are the common choices.

If you have green fingers and want something that lasts longer, you can find big pots of kumquat trees with branches overflowing with cheery orange-coloured kumquat. The Chinese name for kumquat is 金吉Jin Ji meaning “Golden Luck”.

Kumquat trees make great cooking companions, too - their fruit tastes sour but the extracted juice can be used in salad dressings. Alternatively, you can also try getting kumquat-shaped or red lantern-shaped Christmas lights (above, right) instead.

Bamboo which means longevity and upward mobility is also a popular Chinese New Year plant. In the last 10 years or so, the art of horticulture has gotten more elaborate, so instead of buying just straight bamboo, you can now buy Lucky bamboo pots that come in basket weave (the stems are interweaved or in a growing stack. In Chinese culture, bamboo signifies ascension through the ranks.

Food

Snacking - yes, food! – is probably the most enjoyable part of Chinese New Year.

Families and relatives (usually elders) are usually presented with New Year goodies including cans of abalone and other expensive food. At the supermarket you should be able to find a bewildering array of baked goods all tempting the waistline.

Here are some favourites particular to Singapore and Malaysia:

Tasty Meats

Bak Kua

Bah Kua or roast pork slices should be a familiar name if you visit a Chinese home during this festive period. A popular festive snack, bak kua sellers enjoy brisk business and usually attract long queues of customers during Chinese New Year – check out the long winding queues outside famous bak kua shops. Bah Kua costs approx. $15 onwards per 600g.

Sausages

There's also preserved waxed duck or sausages. In the distant past, winter was a time where fresh food was scarce so waxed ducks or preserved meats became part of the diet during the winter months. Try cooking thinly sliced waxed duck or sausages on top of rice and it will imbue your rice with a special fragrance.

Sweets & Pastries

Pineapple Tarts

Pineapple tarts are butter cookies with pineapple jam on the top or sometimes in the middle. Pineapple in the Hokkien dialect is Ong Lai meaning “Prosperity has come”.

Love Letters

Another festive favourite is Love Letters, which is a coconut flavoured wafer like biscuit rolled into a tube shape. You get them either as rolled tubes or folded, but I recommend going for the tube ones because it’s more fun to eat for the kids as they get to pretend they’re “smoking” while eating them.

Rainbow Wheels

For even more exotic and local flavoured snacks, try the Rainbow Rolls. This is a multi-coloured pastry usually baked in rounded shapes. They have the conventional taste sweet of normal cakes and kids love them for the cute design.

8 Treasures Box

The contents of the 8 Treasures Box has changed quite significantly over the years. This is a small plastic tray with 8 compartments for you to hoard titbits with auspicious meanings.

If you opened an 8 Treasures Box in the 70s, you’ll likely see red and black pumpkin seeds, some dried longans, red dates, gold chocolate coins and preserves.

These days, you’re more likely to get Werternised sweets like Mentos, some chocolates, and also gummy sweets.

Yu Sheng - A Singapore Original

Yu Sheng (or Lo Hei in Cantonese) is a popular dish eaten in some parts of Asia from the Seventh day of the Chinese New Year. (You can read about the origins of Yu Sheng and the practice of Lo Hei here.)

This colourful salad is made up of more than 27 ingredients with raw fish (Yu in Chinese means to have in abundance) as its centrepiece.

If you visit a Chinese household, pay extra attention to how Yu Sheng is served. Each of the ingredients has its own meaning and its auspicious meaning is spoken as the ingredients are poured onto the plate.

Firstly, as the fried crackers are scattered onto the plate, the server needs to say “May your halls be filled with gold”. Next, the sweet plum sauce is poured and the server says “May your year be filled with sweetness and love”.

Finally, the everyone at the table will begin tossing the salad with their chopsticks which is called Lou Hei meaning to pull up (as in pulling in the nets) accompanied by other auspicious sayings about more luck, more money and better job prospects.

Try making your own Yu Sheng so you can throw an authentic lo hei party for friends and neighbours.

Music

Chinese New Year music is not exactly a high-brow affair. Most of the music is rehashed from years past with new remixes and renditions each more noisy than the rest. At the stores in Chinatown or local districts, you’ll definitely be bombarded by the newer renditions from latest trend in pop-music sung by unknown groups or children groups wearing fur trimmed hats.

Here are some songs that I’ll be happy to be rid off after the new year:

The local station’s Chinese Channel usually puts out a couple of locally written Chinese New Year songs.