“Wheresoever you go, go with all your heart.”
–Confucius
Super Bowl and Chinese Lunar New Year’s Eve are Sunday, February 7, 2016. What to do? Celebrate both!
With Super Bowl kickoff at 6:30 p.m. ET there is plenty of time to celebrate Chinese Lunar New Year after the game. Just set the timer and let the crock pot cook while you watch the playoff, you do it every Thanksgiving. And during the commercial breaks you can display your good luck fruit, hang your couplets, enjoy the wafting daffodils you purchased from the nursery, hand out red envelopes to your children and stay up past midnight (the sound of Sleepiness in Chinese is similar to Trouble), because really no one wants more trouble.
The Five Fold Happiness
4000 years of celebrations deepen a culture and create a legacy of endurance. Chinese Feng Shui customs honor the most celebrated festival of the year, Chinese Lunar New Year. Ending with the Lantern Festival on the full moon, the two week celebration represents a fresh start. It is hope and the promise for something better. It is the belief that dreams come true. In the west we focus on achievement but success doesn’t happen “in spite of” but “because of” the people who are in your life. Chinese Lunar New Year is the most supreme time to gather family together. The success of the individual is because of Yuan–family unity. And so the image of the circle, which you see in many of their food dishes like fish balls and oranges, is associated with family. This creates unity, support and continuity. Yuan means roundness and it suggests the attainment of the Five Fold Happiness and those qualities are luck, prosperity, longevity, happiness and wealth. The following celebrations, symbols and motifs ensure timeless wishes for harmony and goodwill among all.
Here are folkloric customs to celebrate Chinese Lunar New Year’s Eve. If you want to perform transcendental Chinese New ceremonies, like Changing the Ch’i of the House and Transforming the Fortunes for Individuals and Residences, get in touch with me, bette@shenmenfengshui.com
Sweep Away the Old The New Year provides an opportunity to send away misfortune that has accumulated and to start fresh. The 20th day of the Twelfth Moon is set aside for the annual housecleaning and clearing the dust of the past year. Every corner of the house must be swept and cleaned.
Display Good Luck Fruit The Chinese love their play on words. Tangerines are symbolic of good luck. Oranges are symbolic of wealth. Orange “sounds” like gold. Pomelo means “to have.” Pineapple sounds like wealth but its real strength is it means luck and excellent fortune. You can display the fruit at the front entry, the dining room, even the kitchen.
Bloom Good Luck Enliven your Ch’i through the sense of smell. The Chinese believe daffodil and Narcissus bulbs when in bloom during the New Year, bring good fortune and luck to a home. This kind of adjustment calms the nervous system and gives you a sense of well being.
Avoid Cutting the Luck of the Year On the last day of the old year, prepare your food for the next two days so that all sharp instruments, such as knives and scissors, are placed in the drawer to avoid cutting the “luck” of the New Year. The kitchen is not to be disturbed on the first day of the Year.
Stay Away From The Barber Don’t schedule your hair to be trimmed on New Year’s Day or the day after.
Honor The New Year With Foods Of Good Fortune New Year’s eve dinner is called the family reunion feast. Not only the family is united, Heaven and Earth are honored, the gods of the household and the family ancestors. Everyone’s speech is peppered with auspicious words. Almost every dish has a symbolic meaning that sounds like the Chinese characters for fortune, happiness, longevity and prosperity. KATU AMNW Foods of Good Fortune
Sleepless In The New Year The Chinese stay up for 12:01 a.m. The sound of Sleepiness in Chinese is similar to Trouble. Sleepless means no trouble for the coming year.
Hand Out, Hong Bao, Lucky Red Envelopes The custom arose that children were easily susceptible to harm during the changing of the year and that money would protect them from evil spirits. This lucky money also serve to bring good fortune for the coming year. During New Year, coins or notes, are placed in red envelopes, hong bao. Children and unmarried adults receive the red packets from elders or married friends. The red envelopes are a wish for good health, good fortune, peace and safety for the coming year.
The following is a very precious cure from the BSTB School of Feng Shui. If you do nothing else, this is the adjustment to perform. It comes from His Holiness, Grandmaster Lin Yun and it’s a great secret to a successful life: perform a good deed every day. By helping another person, you shift, not only their reality, but yours as well. A kind deed will improve your luck, circumstances and income. Kindness is the antidote to the economic down turn. With your sincerity you will find the most exquisite reception for the year.
Gong Xi Fa Cai! May you experience supreme good health, boundless good luck and infinite wealth!
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