Gong Xi, Gong Xi!

Happy Chinese New Year to you and your loved ones and may this year be filled with God's wonderful blessings! A new year is always good as it spells a year of 'new-ness' or new beginnings for many. According to the Chinese Lunar Calendar, this year is the year of the boar/pig or 'oink-oink'.

The pig or boar to many different tribes mean different things; to the Kelabit/Lun Bawang it is food (smoked, barbequed, stewed.. yummy!), to the chinese it is the suckling pig, 'siew yuk' (roast pork), 'cha siew' (barbequed pork - best one so far is at Jln. Alor in KL), etc... but to the muslims and jews, it is a no-no food (not halal). Anyway, besides being a discussion on food, the pig is also synonymous to character traits - similar to the zodiac. We, as Christians, don't believe in this though - our future and character lies in that of a 'new man' in Christ! Not in some foretold ways of living or having some good/bad character traits but to live like Christ ~ following His ways, believing in His promises, trusting in His leading and living a life of hope!

On Chinese New Year eve, after the re-union dinner, we were watching the Disney Channel and there was this cartoon called the Zodiac Race (or something like that). It is a story about a race among the 12 animals in the Chinese Lunar Calendar : Chinese Lunar Calendar is based on the cycles of the moon, and is constructed in a different fashion than the Western solar calendar.

In this story, the rat made it first to the assembly and received the first year. Though the rat did a lot of trickery to reach first to the congregation. At first he tricked the ox to let him ride on its head. The ox agreed and they went together. Just when they were about to reach to the assembly the clever rat jumped off the ox's head and got through the finish line first. This is why the year of the rat is the first year in the cycle and the year of the ox is the second.

This is probably the reason why the first of the twelve years is the Year of the Rat then followed by the year of Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Sheep, Monkey, Rooster, Dog and Pig. This selection of animals delighted both Josh and Jess as they are big 'fans' of animals! Anyway, it was a lot of good fun learning a bit of our Chinese Lunar Calendar.





















Oh, by the way, do you know that the chinese character 'fook' (meaning 'blessings' or more commonly known to many as the character of prosperity) is made up of three parts i.e. God, man and the field (garden - Eden)? This is a very popular symbol used during CNY ~ also on Ang Pow packets. So here's wishing you a very 'fook' year ~ a year of you with God in his wonderful plan (garden of promises) for you!

Oink-Oink!