Chinese New Year celebrations in pandemic times: Chance to hone virtues like patience, endurance

WITH the continued 5-person cap on social gatherings, this Chinese New Year is set to be relatively subdued. This is in comparison not just to the distant pre-pandemic times, but even to last year's festive season, when groups of up to 8 persons were allowed - a luxury that Singapore has not had for 9 months and counting.

Despite understandable pandemic fatigue, self-restraint and personal responsibility remain key, particularly as the Omicron wave has yet to crest.

Current Covid-19 measures specify a 5-person cap on both social gathering sizes and daily unique household visitors, with visitors meant to "preferably limit themselves to 1 visit a day" according to Ministry of Health (MOH) guidelines. This makes it impossible to have the traditional reunion dinners with extended families and multiple rounds of visiting that usually characterise the festival.

Granted, this is still more generous than the restrictions that were prevailing during some other celebratory periods.

And within the scope of these curbs, people are making do. Restaurants are booked up for the eve of Chinese New Year, when the reunion dinner happens, and are seeing demand for corporate lunches - though the usual raucous yusheng-tossing tradition will have to be silenced for another year.

One can only hope that most if not all families do indeed abide by the curbs. The recent New Year's Eve was unfortunately marked by a massive spontaneous gathering at Clarke Quay, as revellers let their hair down, took their masks off, and demonstrated an utter disregard for safe distancing.

While Chinese New Year does not quite lend itself to such debauchery, there is instead the risk of clandestine multi-generational large gatherings, over-enthusiastic house-to-house visiting, or hosts entertaining too many arrivals.

Through each period of restrictions, the underlying logic has been the same: put up with the limits now for the sake of averting a severe healthcare crisis, as well as enabling freer conditions in the future.

Living with the virus, after all, does not mean carrying on as if it does not exist; rather, it is about finding an equilibrium where precautions allow life to go on as normally as possible.

Arriving about a month after the Gregorian calendar's new beginning, Chinese New Year often feels like a second chance at a fresh start. As Singapore makes its tentative way towards living with Covid-19, we should not allow this festive season to herald an even greater spike in case numbers.

Instead, it should be a further chance to hone the virtues which the pandemic has forced us to cultivate: patience; endurance; and consideration, including - as MOH suggests - testing ourselves ahead of house visits or gatherings, particularly if seeing elderly or unvaccinated relatives.

Singapore has to ride out the Omicron wave throughout the festive period and beyond. That much is unavoidable. But we can and must restrict the casualties of this wave.