Just An Extra Chair spreads Lunar New Year cheer
Ms Cess Celestino (first from right) and Mr Anton Arcilla (second from right) dining with Mdm Dolly Tan's family on the first day of Chinese New Year in Singapore. Photo: Lianne Chia via Channel NewsAsia
SINGAPORE — Filipino graduate students Cess Celestino and Anton Arcilla have no family in Singapore and were initially planning to spend their Chinese New Year’s eve at a friend’s place, or head to Chinatown.
But Ms Celestino chanced upon a Facebook post by the Singapore Kindness Movement promoting their “Just An Extra Chair” campaign and decided to sign herself and Mr Arcilla up.
“I thought it was a good opportunity to meet people outside my school and since I wasn’t going to do anything else over Chinese New Year anyway, I might as well do this,’ she said. “It sounded like a good opportunity to go out there, explore Singapore and immerse myself even more in the cultural traditions.”
RESPONSE BETTER THAN EXPECTED
The campaign matches people who do not have anywhere to go over the Chinese New Year period with host families who have an extra space or two at their dinner table.
About 25 hosts and guests had signed up to take part in the campaign, which the Singapore Kindness Movement’s General Secretary William Wan said was beyond his expectations.
“We wanted to field-test it and posted it on our Facebook page, and we thought we could get half a dozen friends to take part,” he said. “We thought we could figure out how it goes and if the response was positive, we could launch a more extensive invite. But to our surprise, more people than we expected signed up.”
Dr Wan said that guests are usually singles from abroad working or studying here who prefer not to go home over the break. There are also Singaporeans who live here, but have families overseas, or foreigners who have never celebrated Chinese New Year before.
“We thought it would be good for these people to join some of our Singaporean friends and join in the Chinese celebrative culture for the new year," he added.
CHINESE NEW YEAR, SINGAPORE-STYLE
That is how Ms Celestino and Mr Archilla ended up at the Pasir Ris home of Mdm Dolly Tan.
Mdm Tan said she usually invites her colleagues from China home for a reunion dinner, but they had chosen to return home this year. She added that her daughter, Samantha, wanted to have steamboat this year and it just would not be as nice in a small group of four.
“In terms of ingredients, we can’t only have four fishballs," said Mdm Tan. "I want to have a variety of food. So I thought why not extend a hand and hope more people turn up so we can enjoy everything together.”
While Ms Celestino and Mr Arcilla said they were initially nervous to meet Mdm Tan in person for the first time, their fears turned out to be groundless as the night went on.
“They’re really nice and it’s like they do this all the time,” said Anton. “They’re very accommodating, very welcoming and you just feel so comfortable with them. I hope all the other participants had as good an experience as we had.”
Ms Celestino added that her favourite part of the evening was tossing yu sheng for the very first time.
“I’ve never done anything like that before, and it makes me feel happy to have shared this experience with a family that values this kind of tradition. If I get more luck this year, it’s going to be because of this!” she said.
