i rarely pick out scents to wear solely based on their label, but today was an exception.
today, 12 february 2021, is the first day of the lunar new year (year of the ox) for many Chinese around the world, including us here in Singapore.
this year's celebrations are slightly more muted, with restrictions on face-to-face house visits (maximum two households visited per person per day), number of people per social gathering (eight visitors) and even prohibitions on speaking/shouting the usual auspicious phrases when tossing yusheng or raising a toast.
necessity is the mother of invention and this season has also been a good opportunity to try more creativity (like video conference 'visits' to relatives) as well as embrace technology in other forms (such as the rising trend of using e-hongbao - gone are the days of spending an entire evening cross-checking the lists of all the children and extended relatives to pack bundles of physical hongbao for distribution)!
to look on the bright side, we're thankful that the number of community cases has remained relatively low (compared to the situations in other countries) and that we're still able to have celebrations and face-to-face meetings safely in some form rather than having to fear canceling it altogether. the rollout of the vaccinations here also comes at a good time, and things are looking better now that the worst of 2020 (and the year of the rat) is behind us.
all things considered, i'm glad to be able to still celebrate the new year in a safer manner. if anything, i actually value the change - the restrictions on number of households visited and number of guests have also made each visit more meaningful through greater quality time spent with guests, rather than feeling like each visit is just another stop along a house-hopping marathon. it's also been easier to estimate visitor numbers and timings, and to prepare the new year snacks and goodies with less wastage.
this year's celebrations are certainly one to remember, and the winking zhao cai mao (fortune cat) on my Sugar & Spite perfume dram really was an apt reflection of my feelings this morning as we got to celebrate safely with relatives and share our hopes for a much better year to come.
to all my Chinese friends and followers, stay safe and take care. fortune kitty and i wish you a very happy 'niu' year!
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this review is of a perfume that i had purchased at regular price with my own money. i wasn’t asked to review this scent as a condition of receipt and didn’t receive any incentives for writing this. i’m not affiliated with Sugar & Spite and as always, all opinions remain my own.
Sugar & Spite's website is available here.
all information correct at time of publishing.
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