Memories of Chinese New Years past

When I was a kid, my grandmother told me the story how the 12 animals signs got into the Chinese Zodiac.  "A long long time ago, the gods called together all the animals on the planet, and told them that there will be a race.  The first 12 winners will be included in a special list that they’ were coming up with.  So on the chosen date, all the animals lined up and started to race each other.  Being the smallest, the rat was able to weave its way through and under all the other animals and ended up crossing the finish line first.  Next came the ox, followed by the tiger, the rabbit, the dragon, the snake, the horse, the goat, the monkey, the rooster, the dog, and lastly, the pig.  That’s how those 12 animals ended up representing the 12 animal signs of the Chinese zodiac, each with its own specific characteristics," my grandmother said. Now, I don't know how real the story is, but that was my grandmother's account, which I used to hear when I was a child. I still remember that story clearly, and now I am telling my children the same thing.  Problem is, my son Aidan can’t accept why his favorite animal, the elephant, did not make it to the Top 12. Anyway, in just a few days, the tumultuous Year of the Rabbit will leave us to give way for the Year of the Dragon.  Hopefully, the coming year will be more peaceful, with less calamities and tragedies coming our way. For the Chinese, the dragon is the luckiest and most auspicious of all the animal signs.  Parents want their kids to get married in the Year of the Dragon.  Couples rush to make "dragon babies" because they’re supposed to be lucky.  You can just imagine the number of babies that will be born this year. Personally, I don’t really care that much about the animal signs, about who’s born lucky and who’s not. May be it’s because  I was born in the year of the tiger, and I’ve always been told that it’s not as good as the other animal signs in the Chinese zodiac.  During her later years, my grandmother became a Buddhist priestess/feng shui expert, so she was well versed in those zodiac signs.  Back then, I remember her saying that my birth date was not lucky at all, given that it was the year of the tiger, and the 7th month of the lunar calendar, the supposed ghost month.  She used to have a list of the unlucky months for each animal sign, and for female tigers,  the 7th month was supposedly unlucky.  So she consulted her calendars and changed my birth date to a month later, to improve my  fortune.  I don’t know how she managed to do it but all through my childhood, they would celebrate my birthday about a month later, depending on when the new date fell on the lunar calendar.  That only changed when I reached my teen years, when I became a Christian, and insisted on celebrating my original birth date. After all, God chose to have me be born on that day, so why question or change that? But changed birth dates notwithstanding, I always looked forward to Chinese New Year when I was a kid.  For us Chinese, new year meant wearing red, having lots of food at home, and having lots of ang pao (red envelopes) with money inside.  We usually got the ang pao after greeting our elders “Kiong Hee Huat Tsai, ang pao tsi pao lay” which simply meant “Wishing you happiness and prosperity, now hand over an ang pao”.  Of course, when you’re a child saying that to your grandparents sounded cute.  I don’t think it will still work for me now that I’m a grownup. One thing I distinctly remember about Chinese New Year was the overwhelming smell of incense. As I said earlier, my grandmother was a Buddhist priestess and the 3rd floor of our house was actually a Buddhist temple. I would usually help her entertain the visitors, and sometimes even chanting along with them. Now a lot of Chinese make it a point to visit Chinese temples on Chinese New Year’s Eve to offer incense, pray to their ancestors and consult the resident geomancer about their fortunes for the coming year. Our house, being a temple, would be receiving visitors nonstop, all throughout the night until New Year’s Day itself. My grandmother’s customers would come and consult her about their fate.  They’d bring with them lots of food to offer to the gods, which they’d usually bring back home with them.  But in case the guests would just leave the food behind, we kids would inspect the food and choose which ones we’d like to eat after the visitors have left. After my grandmother died, her customers stopped coming to our house and to the temple.  My mother would just carry on the tradition of displaying food on the table to bring luck for the new year.  She’d have tikoy, of course, to bind the family together (stickiness).  There would be round fruits so that there’ll be lots of money.  A big fried fish would also be present because fish supposedly represented abundance (Nian Nian You Yu). We’d have pineapples for prosperity, since its Chinese term sounded like the Chinese term for prosperity.  There would also be a bowl of rice, on top of which there’s a small piece of gabi (the root crop) and an ang pao with money inside.  I think this meant that there will always be food on the table all throughout the year. Now that I have children of my own,  I am also starting to expose them to the culture and traditions that I grew up with.  I feel that it is important for them not to lose their cultural heritage because it is part of who they are.  But more than the beliefs and superstitions, more than the lucky signs and charms that now come with the commercialized celebration of Chinese New Year, the things that I really want to ingrain in my children are the Chinese values of filial piety, caring for family and for others, respect for elders, hard work and perseverance. And as for those animal signs, it would be cute if my kids could memorize all of them. Imagine what a kick the older Chinese would get hearing them recite the animal signs in Chinese, in their correct order. But I’d also tell them that they should not let the characteristics of their animal sign dictate on who they are or what they will become.  For it is ultimately God who is in charge of our lives, and who is in control of everything. To everyone out there, Kiong Hee Huat Tsai (Fookien), Kung Hei Fat Choi (Cantonese) and Gong Xi Fa Cai (Mandarin)!  May you have a Blessed Chinese New Year!