Spring Cleaning 2011

Chinese Lunar New Year, also known as Chun Jie (春节) is a major festival for Chinese both in Asia and other parts of the world where there is Chinese population. It is the period when people celebrate the start of Spring. The festival starts on the first day of the first Lunar month and ends on the 15th day. Families will gather for a reunion dinner on the eve of the festival, a day known as Chu Xi (除夕).

The festival signifies a new start of a new year. Hence before the festival, all families will have a major clean up of their house, a process known as Spring Cleaning.  It is believed the cleaning sweeps away the bad luck of the preceding year and makes their homes ready to welcome good luck in the new year. Discarding old things and buying new ones like clothes also signify fresh start. Hence for the past one month or so, we have been busy cleaning extensively and re-arranging stuff.


As I was sorting my old stuff on one of the days, I came across some stamps that I kept when I was enthusiastic about stamp collection. 

The ship definitive series  (1980) - (digital, ref: http://www.cs.com.sg/1980.htm)

 

The colours choice and the detailed ship designs attracted me. I could not help but to take a picture of them as a representative of my other stamp collections. Years went by. Although these stamps have been replaced by newer designs, these in my collection will always be around. As I have stopped collecting stamps now, I still keep these stamps with me. What was a childhood passion back then has become a fond memory for me now.