Preparation for the New Year usually includes a thorough cleaning of the house, decorating the house and preparation of food for the New Year’s Eve dinner as well as the following days of celebrations. An integral part of the festival is the New Year’s Eve dinner, or reunion dinner. Family members would make a point to gather together to enjoy a meal with each other. In olden times, days celebrating Chinese New Year were one of the few days where common folk who lived frugally throughout the year would feast on delicacies and have the enjoyment of wearing new clothes.
Other traditions of the Chinese New Year are Firecrackers, Red Packets and New Year Greetings. Traditionally, firecrackers are set off as soon as the New Year arrives. It is a sign of getting rid of the old and welcoming the new. Red packets, also known as ‘Hong Bao’, are typically handed out to the younger generation by their elders. These red packets are red envelopes with money in them. They symbolise luck and wealth. That is why many children often look forward to the coming of Chinese New Year. As it is a time for socializing, people refrain from saying inappropriate language and instead auspicious New Year Greetings are exchanged when they go out and visit their relatives and friends.
In the Tao community, the Lunar New Year is also an important time as we welcome in a new year. Usually a few weeks prior to the New Year, Tao kins gather in Prayer Halls to observe the Thanksgiving prayers. These prayers let us reflect upon the year just past and allow us to give thanks to heaven for letting us pass through various obstacles in our cultivation we might have faced throughout the year. Following these prayers are the prayers for requesting a smooth and peaceful year ahead for both mankind and our cultivation. Tao kins also take this opportunity to set their objectives in cultivation for the new year.
On New Year’s Eve, much preparation as well as prayers would be done throughout the night. Every Prayer Hall guardian would have to stay at home to guard their Holy Lamps, or ‘Shou Fo Deng’. Tao kins are encouraged to gather at their local Prayer Hall to celebrate the New Year with their Prayer Hall guardian through a series of prayers. Prayers include repentance of any wrong doings for the year just past and celebration of the coming of a new year.
The Holy Lamps and joss sticks are continually burnt throughout the night until dusk on New Year’s Day. Hence the term ‘guarding’ the Holy Lamps. In keeping with Chinese New Year tradition, most Prayer Hall guardians in Melbourne would visit the Main Prayer Hall after their evening prayers to pay respect to the Master as well as exchange New Year greetings with each other.
It is hoped that this newsletter helps provide a little more understanding of Chinese New Year and its significance to us Tao cultivators.
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