We just started a new year and a friend commented yesterday that it’s already the 24th of January, which for those who celebrate the Lunar New Year means that another new year is approaching. The Lunar New Year this year falls on 17 February.
For those who follow the solar calendar, the new year comes even later. The Thai New Year (known as Songkran) is on 13 April. There are new years which fall on a different day of the year every year, like Eid or Hari Raya Puasa, which depends on the sighting of the moon. Deepavali (as it is known in Singapore) or Diwali (as it is called in India) follows the Hindu lunisolar calendar, which usually falls in October of November.
If the new year signifies a chance to begin again, we have many reminders that we can always make many new beginnings. Good resolutions need to be renewed because most of us tend to forget them!
One of my favourite poems is entitled Be an Optimist by Wayne Visser, which starts with:
“Be an optimist
Not because the future is bright,
But because bright people are working to make the future better.”
Apart from all the new years which are celebrated around the world, we have our personal new years, which are our birthdays. My favourite birthday poem which is from a birthday card my mother gave me on my eleventh birthday starts with:
“Count your garden by the flowers,
Never by the leaves that fall.
Count your days by golden hours,
Don’t remember clouds at all.”
If you are celebrating a birthday soon, HomSkils has some ideas for your menu. The Chinese tradition is to serve noodles because they symbolize longevity. When I was asked this year what I would like on my birthday, I asked for pasta puttanesca. I had no idea of the origin of the name of this dish until Elena, who is part of the HomSkil team and who had lived in Italy, told me the meaning of the name of this dish. It was a big of surprise to me!
There are other dishes with unusual names like Buddha Jumps over the Wall (a Chinese dish), Boodle Fight (a Filipino dish) and Toad-in-the-hole (a classic English dish).
The other highlight of my birthday this year was a Thai meal at a new Thai restaurant called Krapow (which means holy basil leaf in Thai). My brother is very good at spotting new food places and he is a fan of Thai food. We met the owner of the restaurant and we chatted for quite a while. It made the meal more memorable.
I hope you have many inspirations for birthday celebrations this year. My birthday cake this year was a fruit and jelly cheesecake. I usually ask for jelly, thinking that it’s an easy dessert to make, but I always get the most amazing jelly cakes.
Happy Birthday to all January babies.
Have a great week ahead.
By Chayo, HomSkil Editor 1, 25 January 2026
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