Sambot taon

A visit to a photography exhibition at the Peranakan Museum in Singapore offers Alan Teh Leam Seng insights into the Chinese Lunar New Year celebrations of the Straits Chinese in decades past

“THE Peranakan Museum will close from April 2019 and only re-open in mid-2021. Since you’re in Singapore now, why don’t you drop by to have a look at the amazing exhibits on display?” suggests my Singaporean friend when we meet for lunch at a restaurant near his Marina Bay Financial Centre workplace recently.

With the Chinese Lunar New Year less than a week away at the time, my friend, a Straits Chinese, goes on to regale me with tales about how the festive period was celebrated in the past at his ancestral home in Joo Chiat, an affluent suburb on the eastern part of the island.

He finally succeeds in getting me to agree to visit the museum when I realise that there were only two days left to view Amek Gambar, an extensive photography exhibition offering a rare glimpse into the opulent lifestyle of the Peranakans throughout this region during the early 20th century.

“The photographs will give you a better understanding of how the Straits Chinese sambot taon (which literally means welcome the New Lunar Year in the creole dialect of the Malay language called Baba Malay),” my friend added persuasively.

“Sambot taon is the most important festival of the year for the Straits Chinese and involves a series of auspicious activities to retain all the good fortune from the previous year, as well as hope for an even better year ahead,” he adds with finality before promising to meet me at the museum later that day.