It was 11pm on the final night of the Year of the Ox. A good friend of my wife's had invited us over to her house to celebrate the dawn of the Year of the Tiger in a very traditional Thai-Chinese way, and we arrived at her house just as her husband was finishing setting up the family altar in the garden.
Pinky's friend, Nun, is from a Thai-Chinese family, but her husband is not. They got married last year, and since it was her first time celebrating Chinese New Year away from her family, she decided to invite us over to celebrate together.
The altar was angled southeast in accordance with this year's prescribed Feng shui (Nun told us that the exact geomancy changes according to the year of the Chinese zodiac, so you do have to do a little research before setting up). Atop it was a variety of offerings to Caishen (财神), the Chinese god of wealth, who would be approaching from the southeast at midnight, and hopefully bringing auspicious blessings of prosperity to the household.
The offerings consisted of dragonfruit, apples, oranges, grapes, bananas, longan, flowers, candles, heaped bowls of rice, various traditional Thai-Chinese sweets, plenty of joss paper, and two cans of Leo Beer.
Before getting started, we all had to place our wallets on the corner of the table... hopefully to attract wealth and prosperity in the new year!
Nun's husband started the ritual. As house owner, it was his job to go first by lighting three sticks of special red incense - each one as thick as a thumb and stamped with golden Chinese characters. The incense sputtered and sparked and billowed with plumes of fragrant floral smoke. He stood before the altar to pray before placing the incense upright in a bowl of dried rice.
Next, it was Nun's turn. She handed Pinky and me each three sticks of regular Thai incense, then took three sticks for herself, which she lit and also placed in the bowl of rice. Pinky and I followed by making wishes for a healthy, happy, and prosperous new year.
Then, we went inside to hang out and talk while waiting for the incense to burn down and midnight to arrive. While inside, we wrote our names along with our prayers and wishes for the new year on a fan-like length of green paper along with those of Nun and her family.
At midnight, we went back outside to light three more sticks of incense each.
Then, it was time to burn the joss paper!
Thai-Chinese families burn joss paper, or ghost paper, to bless their departed loved ones during the day, but nighttime is for giving offerings to the gods and spirits. That meant that there were no paper iPads, first-class airplane tickets, or watches to be burnt this time. Instead, there was a very traditional array of folded paper. Some paper was stamped with gold, others had Chinese prayers or poetry on them, and yet others were folded into ghost ingots resembling traditional Chinese golden ingots.
We left for home shortly after midnight, laden up with a big bag of fresh fruit and sweets, and ready for the new year.
As the taxi drove back through the dark city, we could see the warm glow of candles and burning ghost paper as families with their own altars stood in the doorways to their homes or outside of their gates to welcome the year.
I know little about Thai-Chinese culture. It was a wonderful experience to have had such a genuine and authentic traditional celebration with friends, and I feel so grateful to have been invited and included in the special evening.
Happy Chinese New Year!
No comments:
Post a Comment