A bad sign? CNY decorations put up wrongly

Singapore — Facebook users pointed out a mistake in the Chinese New Year (CNY) decorations which were put up at Hougang neighbourhood on Saturday (Jan 23).

The original decorations read “迎接春福”, which translates directly to Welcome Spring Prosperity. While the meaning was still acceptable, the actual phrase is “迎春接福” which means Welcome spring and receive prosperity (as seen in the picture below). The two characters in the middle should have been swapped.

It was posted in the Facebook group COMPLAINT SINGAPORE. “COMPLAINT SINGAPORE” is the first & original Complaint Facebook group in Singapore since 2017, providing an arena for everyone to vent their anger & unhappiness, share bad experiences in Singapore and complain.

Some netizens are more concerned that the mistake was posted in a place meant for complaints. They pointed out that the user could have brought up the mistake to the organisers instead of complaining about it.

Nonetheless, the mistake was soon fixed by Sunday afternoon (Jan 24), as shared by another Facebook group 走, 新加坡.

The comment translates to “They finally changed it! This is great! Immediately fixed the mistake, worth applauding, #GoHougang”.

The online community have been joking about the incident, with some mocking the organisers for not ensuring the decorations were put up properly, while others were more optimistic that the mistake was fixed fast.

The comment translates to “Probably because they looked at Facebook and saw the mistake *laughing emoji”.

As Chinese New Year draws nearer, more decorations are being put up in residential estates, and more events will be taking place. Do keep an eye out for the festivities!

Denise Teh is an intern at The Independent SG. /TISG