Five alternative ways to do Lo Hei during Chinese New Year 2021

Celebrating Chinese New Year this year will be a little different because of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

For starters, authorities have announced that households can only receive up to a maximum of eight visitors a day, while each individual can visit only up to two households a day. 

Additionally, everyone has to mask up during Lo Hei, or the tossing of Yu Sheng, and the shouting of auspicious phrases – a tradition and the major part of Lo Hei – will not be allowed. 

Still, it doesn’t mean that we have to cease celebrations. Here are five other methods you could try to keep your Lo Hei this year saliva-free!

One useful factor of Google translate is that it has an audio feature that reads out the words you enter in the text box. 

Simply type in your auspicious phrase, set your volume up high, and play it.

However, one negative side effect to this is that typing out the words might take a while, and multitasking is already hard enough without manoeuvring tossing food with chopsticks.

And if you make a typo? That’s going to be one funny phrase!

If you want to sound less robotic and more like you, why not voice record yourself saying all the phrases out loud before you go house visiting or guests come over? 

That way, you can simply play your own pre-recorded voice during Lou Hei and avoid spreading your germs everywhere.

Say goodbye to worrying about sudden voice cracks or forgetting the words, because you can easily re-record any mistakes you make while saying your auspicious wishes.

Instead of manually typing out phrases to say out loud, there is an app created by DJ Beng that plays aloud audio of 14 different auspicious sayings as well as a Huat Ah and Yam Seng button.

Offering phrases in both mandarin and cantonese, you can even control the duration of how long you want your Yam Seng to be depending on how long you press the button for. You can also tap and hold the Yam Seng button with two fingers to have multiple voices instead of one.

Available for both Android and iOS, the app is free of charge and you can download it here.

But if you do not want to clutter your phone by downloading an additional app, then head to this website.

Created by Tribal Worldwide Singapore, the same company that created the viral iamccb.sg website, lovolume-lohei.sg contains not only the phrases for your Lo Hei, but the specific instructions for your Lo Hei too! If you are one of those who can’t remember every single steps, then this is going to be your best friend. 

A more hands free approach to this would be to simply play a YouTube video of auspicious Lo Hei sayings in the background.

This way, you don’t have to worry about pressing the right buttons on your phone, as the video already plays everything in order for you. All you have to do is follow the timing accordingly.

On YouTube, there is a three-minute video created by Alvin Oon to help with your Lo Hei process. The video instructs you on when to pour in the various ingredients and shouts prosperous phrases in both chinese and english, ending off with a minute long “Huat Ah”.

The YouTube video sounds surprisingly realistic and could pass off as your family members shouting along with you. Check it out here.

A more silent approach, you could try holding up plaque cards with auspicious phrases on each card, and hold them up accordingly when needed.

However, if this is too silent for you, you could play Chinese New Year music in the background to hype things up and encourage everyone to clap instead of shout.

Don’t let COVID-19 hinder your fun! Although we definitely need to practise safer hygienic measures, these rules are set in place for our health and well-being.

After all, we can’t be wishing “身体健康” while neglecting our loved ones’ health.