Our Coming Chinese New Year

Gung Hei Fat Choi! Happy New Year!
The above photo is Hong Kong Harbour at Chinese New Year's celebration - probably last year...

Growing up in Southern Saskatchewan could not be more remote from the world of my Chinese friends. And Southern Saskatchewan would be as isolated as the moon from them from their home in China.

I remember stories of my Grandpa Kirkpatrick befriending two Chinese men in the small town of Truax. They had come to this remote Canadian town to build a business as “restaurateurs” – or better put in Truax – “The Chinese Restaurant”. Mom told me that the local people used to tease and taunt the two men unmercifully. Grandpa didn’t and they became his friends. I imagine he saw the same loneliness that he experienced having come from Iowa to that part of Canada as a young man too.

If you have been to the typical small Chinese restaurant you will always see evidence of the last Chinese New Year – or the one that may be happening right now.

You may catch sight of “Lucky Boy”, Red Paper, Banners with Chinese symbols written on them… all suggesting something special has or is happening here.

As a boy the only food that I remember those small, prairie towns serving was a “Hot Hamburger Sandwich” or “Fries and a Coke”. In those days the locals couldn’t be convinced to try thinly sliced beef with green peppers on a bed of egg noodles. Sweet and sour chicken balls would not yet take the White Man’s world.

It wasn’t until many years later when we became part of the fabric of the Hong Kong society that we would start to understand what the Chinese New Year is all about – or for that matter what my Chinese friends are all about. Having made that statement I quickly adjust that and state ‘what my Hong Kong Chinese friends are all about’.

Generally Chinese New Year celebrations are about three intense days of food and family and blessings and wishes of prosperity and did I mention more food. There is a rich heritage of giving and blessing others. The intention is of course that the final product of what you do might involve a wee bit of blessing back again to you own home, family and business.

Food symbolism is very important at Chinese New Year. Here is a sample of foods to be enjoyed and what they represent:

-Oranges mean wealth, while tangerines represent luck and pomelo abundance, prosperity, having children.

-Eggs are for fertility and egg rolls for wealth.

-Fish served whole: prosperity.

-Bamboo shoots and black moss seaweed mean wealth and dried bean curd happiness.

-Chicken happiness and marriage (especially when served with "dragon foods" such as lobster).

-Noodles suggest a long life.

Other foods include a whole fish, to represent togetherness and abundance, and a chicken for prosperity. The chicken must be presented with a head, tail and feet to symbolize completeness. Noodles should be uncut, as they represent long life.

In south China, the favorite and most typical dishes were nian gao, sweet steamed glutinous rice pudding and zong zi (glutinous rice wrapped up in reed leaves), another popular delicacy.

In the north, steamed-wheat bread (man tou) and small meat dumplings were the preferred food. The tremendous amount of food prepared at this time was meant to symbolize abundance and wealth for the household.

Their Calendar is very different from the Western Calendar and much, much older…
Decades, Century, Millennium vs Great Year, Cycle and Epoch


For historical discussions of long periods, longer units of time are handy.
In the Western calendar terminology:

• Decade = 10 years
• Century = 100 years
• Millennium = 1,000 years
• For example, 2008 is in the Third Millennium, 21-th Century, first decade and 8-th year.

In Chinese calendar terminology:

• Great Year = 12 years
• Cycle = 5 Great Years = 60 years
• Epoch = 60 Cycles = 60 x 60 years = 3,600 years
• The Year 2008 is now in the Second Epoch, 18th Cycle, 25th Year.

By this method of counting, both the Gregorian Calendar and the Chinese Calendar must pick arbitrarily its Year One. Thus, we are in Year 2008 and Year 4705 respectively.

This year of 2008 – the Chinese New Year will arrive on Feb 7, 2008 of the Western Calendar.

So why go into this long article about Chinese New Year on a Church Blog?

One simple fact that should be important to us – there are more Chinese in the world than any other ‘people group’. With that simple fact they represent a huge example of God’s Love – there just has to be a huge amount given to them with so many to be loved.

My wish is that His Great Love would surround them completely…and that they can see His Love through me.

Next week Alida and I will be celebrating Chinese New Year inside of Warkworth Institution – a Federal Correctional Facility. Our Chinese friends inside have invited us to come and celebrate with them.

Now practice with me… Gung Hei Fat Choi! Happy New Year!

~ Pastor Murray Lincoln ~

PS - Would anyone like to go for Dim Sum mext week?

Resources
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Fireworks.jpg
http://www.chinapage.com/astronomy/calendar/calendar.html
http://www.educ.uvic.ca/faculty/mroth/438/CHINA/chinese_new_year.html