No 816 of Living Life Series 1
With the shift towards nuclear families, the emphasis of extended family and grand parents taking the lead to head family gatherings and celebrations is no longer the case. The celebration of Chinese New Year becomes no longer different from the celebration of Christmas and the global new year on 1st Jan.
The age-old culture of Chinese New Year rests on getting the whole extended family together and reaffirming the respect for elders rather than on respecting the self - individual freedom, rights and liberties.
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| Nuclear family gathering from http://cliparts.co/clipart |
Instead of having family reunion in the ancestral home of the eldest in the extended family, this is no longer the case for many. Does it matter when even during normal days of the year, Chinese live as nuclear families? It does in a way become less meaningful to have reunion at the extended family level.
Big extended family reunions on eve of Chinese New Year have decentralized to individual small nuclear families. This is the reality that Chinese in many parts of the world have to live with.
Moreover at the spiritual level, instead of worshiping all heavenly saints, they now do not worship any or prefer to go for monotheism rather than polytheism.
Just like the earthly relationship, the focus has decentralized from worshiping the extended family of God and many saints to that of worshiping just one God or saint in the same style of nuclear family they prefer to have.
This is a departure from the wisdom of the ancestors but many nowadays out of pragmatism and self interests have distanced themselves from the wisdom of ancestors as they think they know better. In a way, it is true that they know better but yet not so in many other ways.
Where is Chinese New Year heading to? It may soon be more practical to celebrate the global new year on 1st January. This is more out of simplicity and more consistent with evolved culture that is inevitable with globalization.
The good lord Lord Bo Tien (武天菩萨) has foreseen this change in cultural emphasis from extended family to nuclear family and from polytheism to monotheism.
He wants us to respect all elders and not just the heads of our own nuclear families. Additionally, he also wants us not just to idolize only one deity or saint but respect and believe in all heavenly saints. We respect all saints - the saints of our own religion and the saints of all other religions.
This is so that there is cohesion of the world as one big extended family and not allow the world to degenerate into numerous self-righteous and self-centered nuclear families where people no longer go along with the thinking of the many and only care for their own.
This contributes to societal ills and less of give and take. Let not Chinese New Year end up with championing self-righteousness and self-centered culture.
The only way out is to go back to the old ways of respect for all elders in a mega extended family. But this may never happen and it is best to be mindful of that and make do with whatever is left of the spirit of Chinese or Lunar New Year that we have inherited from ancestors.
There must be new meaning and culture injected into Chinese New Year that makes it different from the global new year day of 1st Jan. Like it or not, there is this need.
Let us reflect on what Lord Bo Tien (武天菩萨) teaches us on the Universal Prayer. He is after all the messenger of God that all religions are one in God and saints though different they may be.
The prayer goes like this. To all heavenly saints we greatly adore. We believe in your existence and thy glory is in the thoughts of men. We seek for thy protection and guidance so as to live better for the time to come.
At the earthly level, our elders in a way are our saints or earthly gods. We too must adore them. We must believe in them and their glory is in the bringing up of the younger ones like us. We seek too for their guidance and direction so as to live better for the time to come.
In heaven, God and saints are our elders and on Earth, our uncles, aunties and family elders are the elders we need to respect. This is one of the universal precepts the good lord wants us to live up to.
Elders refer to God and saints of all religions as well as elders of super-extended families and community. Respect for elders is central to cohesion and peace on Earth and in Heaven.
Has Chinese New Year lost its bearing? Well, it has to evolve with the times but we must steer clear of self-centered individualized thinking. All must plug in to the bigger picture and not see only the smaller picture.
Surely humanity can rise up to be counted as to be worthy of the elders be they saints and men. There must be respect for elders more so on Chinese New Year. This is the backdrop and how Chinese New Year is going to be celebrated must be based on this backdrop.
We must know our roots and as long as we know our roots and are rooted, we can change the practices of Chinese New Year any other way. We will still be on the correct bearing but not all will agree and that is life, isn't it? Then we too need to agree to disagree.
We need richness of many kinds and varieties to make a treasure pot for Chinese New Year - Pen Cai (盆菜). Isn't treasure pot an item for Chinese New Year?
Have a Happy New Year 步步高升 - success upon success
Surely humanity can rise up to be counted as to be worthy of the elders be they saints and men. There must be respect for elders more so on Chinese New Year. This is the backdrop and how Chinese New Year is going to be celebrated must be based on this backdrop.
We must know our roots and as long as we know our roots and are rooted, we can change the practices of Chinese New Year any other way. We will still be on the correct bearing but not all will agree and that is life, isn't it? Then we too need to agree to disagree.
We need richness of many kinds and varieties to make a treasure pot for Chinese New Year - Pen Cai (盆菜). Isn't treasure pot an item for Chinese New Year?
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| Pen Cai (盆菜) |
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| Moving forward with more success 步步高升 Well this holds true more significantly to the practices of Chinese New Year. We must respect all elders and not just one or two, be they men or saints, We must be progressive not myopic |
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| God and all heavenly saints of all religions |
