A care recipient receives gifts and blessings from volunteers at the pre-Chinese New Year celebration on 1 January 2023. (Photo by Chai Yu Leong)
With the sound of the gong, people scattered all over Tzu Chi Youth Humanistic Centre turned their attention to the entrance. They saw the lion dance troupe and the laughing Buddha enter the youth centre on their way to the Jing Si Books & Café, where they performed three half bows to the Great Enlightened One of the Universe. They then distributed Chinese New Year couplets with the character "福" (which means blessing in Chinese) and wished everyone a Happy Chinese New Year. Their presence brought much joy to the site and made it livelier.
After three years of pandemic hiatus, the happening scene of a celebrative event finally reappeared. On 1 January 2023, Tzu-Chi Foundation (Singapore) hosted the pre-Chinese New Year celebration, inviting 150 care recipients and their families to celebrate Chinese New Year early next to Yishun Lake.
A lion dancer distributes CNY couplets to event participants while performing to create a lively and celebratory atmosphere at the youth centre. (Photo by Fong Kwai Kin)
A Carnivalesque Spring Festival Celebration
The volunteers meticulously planned and organised the event's dining area, game booth area, free haircut zone, and photoshoot studio to make care recipients feel like they were entering a carnival as they entered the open venue.
As the event fell on the first day of 2023, the care recipients and their families celebrated the festival in a festive mood. Together with Tzu Chi volunteers, around 500 people gathered at the youth centre to celebrate the festival, filling the venue with joy and extraordinary excitement.
Mr Yeo, who lives in the east, praised the volunteers who picked him up from home to the event just like how a family member would do. He was very grateful for that.
Mr Yeo, 67, has been receiving Tzu Chi's living cost subsidy for the past five years after being diagnosed with cancer. Over the past five years, Tzu Chi volunteers have been visiting him regularly every month. Even when the pandemic was at its worst, volunteers would call him on the phone to check on him. This provided him with warmth and comfort throughout his lonely life. Uncle Yeo was overjoyed to be able to attend the Chinese New Year celebrations at the youth centre now that he had recovered from his illness.
A care recipient by the name of Ohno Eli described the event as a very joyful occasion where everyone gets to gather happily, and it felt like a homecoming. Hence, she had never missed the event in the previous ten years, and this time she invited her mother and sister to join her.
Tzu Chi volunteers have been accompanying and caring for care recipients as if they were family members for many years, which Ohno Eli felt deeply. Over the years, volunteers would comfort her with warm words of encouragement to boost her confidence whenever she felt depressed, and that has enabled her to rise during the low period of her life.
Ohno Eli disliked going out and spent most of her time at home. As a result, she felt depressed every day and had to rely on sleeping pills to fall asleep. She gradually opened up after receiving Tzu Chi volunteer's unwavering care and love for many years. She has also begun to interact with her family and no longer relies on sleeping pills to sleep.
Therefore, Ohno Ehli is very grateful to Master Cheng Yen and likes listening to Master's teachings. She was aware that the home visits she receives each month happened because Master Cheng Yen founded Tzu Chi.
Being at the event and seeing so many Tzu Chi brothers and sisters who cared and loved her made her feel as if she were returning to her parent’s home, where everyone gathered to celebrate Chinese New Year. This would continue to be an annual event that she looked forward to.
The youth centre is crowded with people attending the annual pre-Chinese New Year celebration. The site is designed and decorated in such a way that makes participants feel as if they are going to a carnival. (Photo by Bong Kian Hin)
Care recipients interact happily with a volunteer dressed up as the God of Wealth, hoping to receive good fortune and happiness in the new year. (Photo by Fong Kwai Kin)
Getting a Haircut to welcome the New Year in Style
The engaging Chinese New Year activities on site allowed the care recipients to prepare themselves for the upcoming festive celebration. The sound of scissors cutting could be heard coming from one corner of the youth centre. The high-speed cutting sound came from the ongoing act of six volunteer hairdressers giving haircuts to care recipients.
These six hairdressers, mostly from two families, were assigned to the charity haircut zone to provide haircuts to nearly a hundred care recipients. Amongst them, Candy Ong, Grace Ong and Vivien Ong are three sisters. Candy Ong not only knows how to do make-up for others, but she is also knowledgeable about flower arrangements.
"As long as Tzu Chi needs us, all three of us will do our best to help," Candy Ong said. “In fact, we come here every year for the pre-Chinese New Year celebration event in the hopes of giving all of the care recipients a new haircut to welcome the New Year."
The other three hairdressers who were aunts and a niece were all Tzu Chi volunteers. The niece, Teo Siew Leng, said, "I used to work with my aunts in the hair salon. Now I have moved on to working in the Jingsi Bookstore & Café. But cutting hair was my old profession; I will definitely come if I could participate!"
Six volunteer hairdressers are giving care recipients new haircuts to brighten up their faces for the upcoming Chinese New Year. (Photo by Fong Kwai Kin)
Next to the haircut zone was the Great Love Photo studio, a semi-open studio with lighting on both sides. The service was made available just in time for care recipients to take their Chinese New Year photos.
Mrs Chua, who arrived in a wheelchair with her husband, took some couple photos together for memory. Mrs Chua, who rarely leaves the house, stated in an interview, "During the pandemic, I visited the hospital very frequently due to a sharp decline in my kidney function. I hardly went out, let alone visited crowded places. This is the first time in nearly three years. I am really happy."
Mr Chua said, "When the Tzu Chi volunteer invited us to this event, we immediately said yes. This event is very crowded. What a rare sight!”
Mrs Chua has been receiving dialysis assistance from Tzu Chi for almost a year. She developed gestational diabetes when she was pregnant in her twenties and was diagnosed with diabetes after delivering her baby. Because of the decline in her kidney function, she needed dialysis for ten years. Mr Chua quit his job to care for his wife and children during the day and work part-time as a food deliveryman at night.
Mr Chua said, "It's true that I can't make ends meet, so I'm grateful for Tzu Chi's help. Besides having the monthly visit from Tzu Chi volunteers, the subsidy can pay for some of the family's daily expenses."
Care recipients and volunteers smile to the camera to have their happiness snapped at the temporary studio filled with Chinese New Year decorations. (Photo by Lai Tong Heng)
87-year-old Madam Zhang attended the pre-Chinese New Year celebration event in the company of her three daughters and posed for a family photo at the Great Love studio. They claimed that without the help of Tzu Chi volunteers, it would be nearly impossible for the entire family to pose for a family photo.
Besides enjoying the CNY eve atmosphere on this day, the family enjoyed the lion dance and singing performances the most.
Madam Zhang, who was in a wheelchair, began accepting living cost subsidies from Tzu Chi after suffering a stroke in 2016. Whereas her 68-year-old daughter also became wheelchair-bound after suffering from a fall. Going out with two wheelchair-bound patients in one family is difficult; Ms Wong, the youngest daughter, stated that her mother and sister almost never left their home except to go to the daycare centre for routine rehabilitation. Tzu Chi’s pre-Chinese New Year celebration event was the only outdoor activity they have participated in recent years.
Local singer Tandy Lim is delighting the elderly with some oldies. (Photo by Lai Tong Heng)
Care recipients enjoy a captivating performance in the multi-purpose lecture hall of Tzu Chi Humanistic Youth Centre. (Photo by Bong Kian Hin)
Inspiring Kindness through Interactive Games
There were several interactive booths that provided fun activities such as plum blowing, Chinese New Year couplets, paper cutting, a games area, and so on. Mr Gan Ah Chap, who was attending the Chinese New Year event for the first time, particularly enjoyed the atmosphere of the game area, which reminded him of many happy childhood memories. Gan Ah Chap also stated that it was one of the few days that he could spent so happily in the past eleven years and he believed that it was very beneficial to his mental health.
Chew Sio Peng, the volunteer in charge of the "Give without Money" booth, enthusiastically invited care recipients to toss a sticky ball onto the dart board and then carefully explained to the participants the various types of giving that do not require money.
Chew Sio Peng said that non-monetary giving, such as smiling at others, speaking gentle words, treating others with sincerity, giving others a kind gaze and physically helping others etc., do not require money. He further explained that many care recipients felt they did not have enough money and were unable to contribute. But the Buddha told us that we could give and cultivate blessings without using a single cent, and this is exactly what everyone can do.
At the "Give without Money" booth, participants discover the different types of giving that do not require money. (Photo by Lai Tong Heng)
Despite the innovative adjustments made to this year’s pre-Chinese New Year celebration event, which resumed after the pandemic, the heartwarming scenes remained unchanged. Everyone celebrated the festive season with joy and was inspired to be kind and do good deeds together.
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