Getting ready for Chinese New Year<\/p>\n
By Myra Sidharta<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): When I came to visit Auntie Hong just before
\nChristmas, I found her busy preparing for the Chinese New Year.
\nShe had bought sacks full of sticky rice and brown sugar.<\/p>\n
Auntie Hong makes the traditional cakes called kueh keranjang
\n(basket cakes) for a bit of extra income during the Lunar New
\nYear celebrations. The giant wok used to make the dough had been
\ntaken out to be cleaned along with the baskets in which the dough
\nis to be poured.<\/p>\n
\"Auntie isn't it too early for the Chinese New Year
\npreparations?\" I asked.<\/p>\n
\"Well, actually I'm late,\" she answered. \"The fasting month
\nhas started and our New Year will be just before the end of the
\nfast, won't it?\"<\/p>\n
\"No, Auntie, this year the Chinese New year will not coincide
\nwith Idul Fitri, but will be in February.\"<\/p>\n
She was dumbfounded. Chinese New Year coincided with Idul Fitri
\nfor the last three years and perhaps she thought it would be the
\nsame again this time. But no, she had heard it from someone else,
\na person who had come to order her cakes.<\/p>\n
I called this person and asked her where this news came from,
\nbut she had also heard from someone else, and said she would call
\nme back. After a string of telephone calls, she called and told
\nme that it was an order from Hong Kong. Apparently a temple had
\nadvised the Chinese in Indonesia to celebrate the New Year before
\nIdul Fitri to avoid riots, because there was less likelihood of
\nriots during the fasting month.<\/p>\n
It sounded like a good advice but was it possible? The Chinese
\ncalendar has been established since the days of the Yellow
\nEmperor, the first of the five August Emperors who lived around
\n2500 B.C.<\/p>\n
They had invented tools for the farmers and fishermen, such
\nas the plough to tilt the land and the nets for capturing fishes
\nand birds. They also noticed that there was a rhythm in the
\nchange of the time such as day and night and the different
\nseasons.<\/p>\n
Thus they invented the calendar to record these changes. This
\ncalendar has been used by emperors and farmers to determine the
\ntime of important decisions and operations, such as sowing,
\nharvesting etc. In fact, the Chinese character for \"year\"
\nrepresents a man carrying a sheaf of grain on his back, in other
\nwords, the annual harvest.<\/p>\n
This show how closely linked the calendar is with the life of
\nthe farmers. When Dr Sun Yat Sen succeeded to overthrow the
\nManchus in 1911 and announced that under the new republic the New
\nYear will celebrated according to the Western calendar on
\nJanuary 1st, people still went on to celebrate the old
\ntraditional New Year, which was more meaningful for them.<\/p>\n
Now, what will happen when suddenly a group of people decides
\nto move the New Year and celebrate it a month earlier than usual?
\nThe answer is that not only will the whole year become
\ndisorganized in terms of holidays and festivals, but the effect
\nwill also be felt in following years.<\/p>\n
This is because the calendar is based on calculations with
\nvery complicated astronomical equipment. In 104 B.C., Szu-ma
\nChien, the great astrologer and archivist, made changes to the
\nexisting calendar of the day.<\/p>\n
By employing compasses, sundials and water clocks, he marked
\nout the first and last days of each month, the spring and autumn
\nequinoxes and the summer and winter solstices, the movements of
\nthe heavenly bodies and the phases of the moon.<\/p>\n
The duration of one month is one cycle of the moon, just like
\nin the Arabic calendar. The difference is that the new moon can
\nbe seen on the first of each month for the Arabs, whereas the
\nChinese designate the day before the moon can be seen as the
\nfirst day of the month, and the 15th day of each month coincides
\nwith the full moon.<\/p>\n
That was why last year, and for the two previous years, the
\nChinese New Year fell one or two days before the Idul Fitri
\nholiday. The reason the two festivals do not coincide this year,
\nand for the next thirty-four or thirty-five years to come, is
\nthat the Chinese calendar had a leap month last year. These leap
\nmonths occur twice in five years to align the spring season with
\nthe beginning of the year.<\/p>\n
These calculations for the calendar date from 106 B.C., and
\nhave since been perfected by the Jesuit priest Matteo Ricci and
\nhis successors in the 17th century. It was the outstanding work
\nof Verbiest, a Flemish Jesuit astronomer, that has enabled the
\nChinese to predict the positions of the moon and other heavenly
\nbodies far into the future. As such the Chinese calendar has been
\narranged many years in advance, and cannot be changed, for
\nwhatever reason.<\/p>\n
The New Year for the Chinese is not only the beginning of the
\nyear, but also the beginning of the four seasons. There are many
\nrituals to be observed before the year ends and the New Year is
\nheralded.<\/p>\n
One week before the end of the old year, the Kitchen God
\ndeparts to heaven to report on the family he has been guarding.
\nFor this reason houses have to be cleaned at this time, and most
\nimportant of all, debts have to be settled. The image of the
\nKitchen God is smeared with honey, so he will take sweet news
\nabout the family.<\/p>\n
And when finally the New Year has arrives, it is welcomed with
\nfirecrackers, because the roads have to be cleared of evil
\nspirits. For three days the world is at rest and people do
\nnothing but visit friends and relatives to pay their respects.<\/p>\n
Of course they have to wear new dresses, usually red, because
\nred is the color of good luck and festivity. They serve cookies,
\nsweets, oranges and nuts, all of which have to be eaten because
\nof their symbolic meanings. Lion dance groups sometimes visit to
\nperform their latest tricks. Of course they expect a substantial
\nangpao, a red envelope containing a sum of money, because they
\nbring good luck to your house. Children and unmarried women, too,
\nreceive angpao.<\/p>\n
The lunch at home is for the family members to get together.
\nFor the wealthy the meal should include abalone, sea cucumbers
\nand other delicacies, but one dish should never be left out: the
\nfish. How it is served is not important but fish should always be
\npresent, for the word \"fish\" sounds similar to word \"abundance\",
\nand that is what every family has in mind for the year to come.<\/p>\n
On the 15th of the first month, the full moon invites people
\nto go outside to celebrate. Until the early 60s, Jakarta still
\nhad the celebrations in Glodok, where young people would come
\ntogether hoping for a chance to meet their soul mate.<\/p>\n
Girls would throw mandarins to the boy of their choice, and
\nwhen he felt the same way, the would also show his affection so
\nthe two could meet. There were also celebrations in the temples,
\nwhere the gods are taken out and carried in sedan chairs to join
\nthe procession.<\/p>\n
Afterwards people would enjoy a meal of lontong capgomeh --
\nrice cooked in banana leaves with chicken and tempeh and tofu
\ncooked in coconut milk. This uniquely Indonesian meal enforces
\nthe perception that the Chinese community is more Indonesian than
\nChinese.<\/p>\n
This full moon festival concludes the series of celebrations
\nfor the New Year. Auntie Hong will have a good New Year
\ncelebration this year, because she has received many orders. The
\nNew Order is gone and the Chinese people are happy that their
\ncelebrations are respected again.<\/p>\n
The writer is a psychologist with interest in Chinese Culture<\/p>", "url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/getting-ready-for-chinese-new-year-1447893297", "image": "" }, "sponsor": "Okusi Associates", "sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com" }