Every new year brings new life, new hopes and aspirations. Families congregate once a year on the eve of the lunar new year for reunion traditionally at home. This signifies wholeness and wholesomeness. From beginning to end of a year is like starting off and completing in a circle. The beginning is the end of the previous year and the end is the beginning. The circle is everything and is complete. But a new cycle of life begins.
Whilst families warm up their kinship over steamboat on the evening of the eve of the lunar new year, the gods and saints of the family home are sent off at midnight as they too must report to Heaven and have audience (reunion) with the Buddhas and the Jade Emperor. Thus the more traditional Chinese send them off by offerings of 'nian gou' or sweet sticky glutinous rice and sugar, hoping that the gods and saints have sweet words to report to Heaven of their human wards.
The word 'nian' may sound like the word 'year' and 'gou' sounds like the word 'high'. May the new year bring on more highs in endeavors of life
The word 'nian' may sound like the word 'year' and 'gou' sounds like the word 'high'. May the new year bring on more highs in endeavors of life
There is much to rejoice over a completed year and more to rejoice for the unfolding of a new year. Chinese are encouraged to be positive and to count their blessings for the past year and to look forward to a whole new year of life. There is joy for the end and more joy for a new beginning.
It is time to put aside misunderstandings and hiccups in life and to look at the bright side. There is hope as there is new life, specifically a new year. Cheers to life of past year and more cheers to welcome life in the new year.
Truly the end of past year is the beginning of new year and the beginning was the end of a past year. This is life and it is best we make the best out of it. It is best we be happy and learn to be more happy. We need to count our blessings and no time to wallow in woes.
The new year brings new hopes and allows for a year for bountiful blessings be it in health, wealth, kinship and spiritual bliss. Gong Xi Fa Cai (Happy and Prosperous New Year) is the way to go in life but remember life is a circle. Let there be cyclical joy and blessings.
In a circle, the beginning is the end and the end is the beginning. Yin or soft attributes must follow and go in tandem with yang or hard attributes of life. The motto in life is to go for blessings and what better day to remind us folks to do so than the first fifteen days of the lunar new year.
Be happy and joyful not only during the festive first 15 days of the new year but for every moment and day of the whole year. Go for the goodness of both yin and yang and not be perturbed by and dwell in the not-so-good yin and yang.
Let us accept life and count blessings as well as cultivate and nurture more joy and peace in life. This is the spirit of the new year.
On the fifth day of the new year, the gods and saints return from heaven to the homes of men. Traditional families will welcome them with offerings. There is also the practice to welcome the kitchen god with offerings usually on the fourth day and in the kitchen of shops and factories.
The God of Wealth (Cai Shen Yeh) figures prominently on the fifth day and some families still go to the sea to welcome him. They offer food and release birds and sea turtles to give them life and hope God and saints too will give them life and set them free from issues that may curtail and limit life.
On the seventh day, Chinese celebrate everybody's birthday. This day, some cooked vegetable soup with 7 types of vegetables. This concept has close parallel to the concept of creation of man in the Genesis of the Christian Bible. It is day for the celebration of life. God gives men life and the seventh day is the day to commemorate this. The seventh day is symbolic day to rest and to rejoice in the creation by God of the universe and of life.
In fact the seventh day of the lunar new year too is about more life or extra life. To celebrate the blessing of extra life providence, Chinese in Singapore gather to eat raw fish salad which in Chinese is 'yee (fish) sang ( raw or life)'. The words sound like 'extra life"
On the seventh day, Chinese celebrate everybody's birthday. This day, some cooked vegetable soup with 7 types of vegetables. This concept has close parallel to the concept of creation of man in the Genesis of the Christian Bible. It is day for the celebration of life. God gives men life and the seventh day is the day to commemorate this. The seventh day is symbolic day to rest and to rejoice in the creation by God of the universe and of life.
In fact the seventh day of the lunar new year too is about more life or extra life. To celebrate the blessing of extra life providence, Chinese in Singapore gather to eat raw fish salad which in Chinese is 'yee (fish) sang ( raw or life)'. The words sound like 'extra life"
On the ninth day, Chinese especially Hokkien celebrate the auspicious birthday of God Almighty the Jade Emperor. This calls to mind that God arises or is born out of the best of primordial energy and oversees the various realms under Heaven. He is the creator of realms and beings but He too is created in a way. Thus God is both created and the creator, just like any being or man who is both created and creator.
A man is the son of another man and the father of another. This too again is like the circle where the beginning is the end and the end is the beginning. Life goes on that way and man must find meaning and fulfilment in the circle of life.
The lunar new year is both the beginning and the end. Ancestors and sages want us to be happy over this and we need to live up to the happy new year message that we utter ever so often on the new year days.
Have a Happy New Year. All are entitled to be Happy and to have more blessings. The issue is whether we are able to live up to this, never mind if our neighbours and colleagues are better than us.
On the fifteen day of the lunar new year, young men and ladies roam the streets. In the old days, eligible ladies throw mandarin oranges at a bridge hoping that their future life long partners will pick them up. After all, young ladies are like gold (symbolised by the mandarin oranges) to their would-be husbands.
The new year heralds romance that brings out yin yang harmony - the desired outcome for many couples. Cheers and more children too. That too is in a way prosperity that is beyond fiscal wealth.
The new year heralds romance that brings out yin yang harmony - the desired outcome for many couples. Cheers and more children too. That too is in a way prosperity that is beyond fiscal wealth.
Happy New Year. Gong Xi Fa Cai is the way to go
 |
| Wu Lu Cai Shen "The 5 Directional Deities of Wealth"
PS The 5th lunar day of Chinese New Year is the welcome day for the god of wealth. Many families worship the god of wealth in the early morning. Some even invite the lion dance team to celebrate the opening ceremony of a store. The lion is the mascot of the god of wealth. The house or store owner will give the mascot a red packet with money reward inside. Who is the god of wealth? The answer is that there is more than one god of wealth in the Chinese culture, in fact five. There are two gods of sword wealth and two gods of pen wealth. The fifth is the god of windfall, because lucky money make it easy for people to get rich faster. He is the one referred to when Chinese refer to the god of wealth as one. The five gods of wealth arose and were intertwined with Chinese history. They were personalities involved in history of dynasties.
PS Do you want to know more of the reunion dinner in days of old? |
