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Lunar New Year: as coronavirus crashes the party, Southeast Asians find other ways to celebrate
- Covid-19 restrictions have put a spanner in the works for traditional festivities that emphasise family gatherings and communal meals
- But people in Southeast Asia say there are other ways to make the period special, even if the ‘prosperity toss’ needs to be toned down
Reading Time:8 minutes
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The Lunar New Year is traditionally a time when communities across Southeast Asia celebrate with large family gatherings, communal meals.
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In other words, exactly the kind of activities that the coronavirus pandemic and social distancing measures have made difficult.
It’s not just that restrictions on international travel mean visits from relatives overseas are out of the question – even small family gatherings (and over enthusiastic salad tossing) could be off the menu in countries where restrictions are the toughest.
This Week in Asia spoke to people in Singapore, Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia about how the restrictions would affect their celebrations as they prepare to welcome the Year of the Ox.
SINGAPORE
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While Singapore has been widely praised for its efforts to bring the virus under control – it has reported just six community infections over the past two weeks with the bulk of new cases imported by travellers (and just 238 of its 60,000 cases to date remain active) – authorities in the city state are not taking any chances.
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