Chinees nieuwjaar in YYC Daoland 2015

Chinees Nieuwjaar YYC Daoland 2015

2015-02-14 20.10.47

 

Gisteren hebben we in het Yin Yang centrum Daoland op de Zeilstraat 42-46 Chinees nieuwjaar gevierd met belangstellenden. Elk jaar doen we dat, meestal iets voor of na Chinees nieuwjaar. Zo een avond is bedoeld om de gemeenschap van vrienden van onze Verjongingskliniek en Acupunctuur/Massage praktijk en Wudang Taiji sport en vakgericht leercentrum een moment van samenkomen te bieden waaruit onze vriendschappen blijken en dat we niet alleen een non-profit bedrijf zijn.

Deze avonden bieden elke keer een moment van bezinning waarin Chinese astrologie en tijdrekening zoals die door de tijden heen gebruikt werd voertuig is van nadenken over ons komende jaar. Het is ook een moment van entertainment en ritueel. De avond word als middendeel altijd gevuld met een Daoistische ritueel zoals je ook in een arme boeren gemeenschap zou kunnen vinden door het gebrek aan middelen en deelnemers om een groot elegant ritueel te doen met muziek, parades etc. Onderdeel van de maaltijd is de tantrische zegening van al de voedingswaren (fruit, taart, rijst, groente, cake, koekjes, chocolade etc) die deelnemers als donatie meenemen. anderen laten een rode envelop achter met een financiele donatie. achteraf is een lang gezellig moment dat meestal duurt tot iedereen klaar is om naar huis te gaan.

Dit jaar was het voorbereidende werk gedaan door Meiyu (Ellen) en Tony. Tony serveerde ook thee voor iedereen en Meiyu ving iedereen op aan de ingang. Onder vind je de engelastalige tekst die ik voorbereid had voor deze avond. Veel geluk in het komende jaar van de yin houten Geit!

Warme groet van  Rene

2015 Year of the goat/sheep

  • 2015 is a wood goat year within a 20 year lower period starting in 2004
  • Heavenly stem of Yin wood
  • Earthly branch of Yin earth goat
  • Previous year was a fire horse yang year
  • The next year 2016 will be a Red Fire Monkey year starting at February 8

Introduction:  Chinese Newyear

Chinese New Year is the biggest event in Chinese world. Chinese celebrate Chinese New Year for 15 days until Chinese Lantern Festival. The Chinese New Year Eve is the day of family reunion. Chinese TV stations provide many Chinese New Year special programs. Most Chinese stay awake until hearing the sound of firecrackers to welcome the Chinese New Year. On the Chinese New Year Day, people like to greet with  wishing “Gong Xi Fa Cai” (恭禧發財), which means “happy New Year.” It also means” wish good luck/prosperity .“ A joke goes around that a fun way to respond to someone who greets you with “Gong Xi Fa Cai” is to say, “Hong Bao Na Lai” (Red envelope please).

It’s also common to hear people say “zhù nǐ hǎo yùn” (祝你好运).  zhù nǐ,  means “wish you” and hǎo yùn means “good luck”. There are several other ways to wish someone good luck for the Chinese New Year. They include “Gōnghèxīnxǐ, zhù shēntǐ jiànkāng, shìyè fādá” (恭贺新禧,祝身体健康、事业发达), which means “Happy New Year, I wish you good health and lasting prosperity,” and “Zhù láinián hǎoyùn, bìng qǔdé gèng dà de chéngjiù” (祝来年好运,并取得更大的成就), which means “Good luck and great success in the coming New Year.”

In the Chinese culture, red, yellow and green are considered to be lucky colors. Red is the Chinese national color and represents happiness, beauty, success and good fortune; yellow symbolizes royalty and the power of the throne; and green symbolizes money. In wuxing theory red is fire, yellow or gold is source of food, morals and gold, green is life. Dao is compared with azure, which is considered the most precious color of green. Associated with qingyang 清羊 (azure goat) and also with 请阳 (clear yang) which is the nature of dadao大道, big dao. From here we see the meaningfulness of a goat year, because it is a not azure goat because goats are always yin.

Chinese New year decorations

For the Chinese New Year, red decorations often are hung in homes, in stores and in public areas. According to Cultural China, often people will display red peonies, called the “Flower of Riches and Honor,” in their homes to bring luck and good fortune to in the coming year.

People also wear red during the holiday festivals and celebrations since it’s believed to help ward off evil spirits and bad fortune. And, of course, the envelopes filled with money that are given as gifts during the Chinese New Year are red – and adorned with yellow.

The first thing to do right after waking up in the morning of Chinese New Year day for ancient Chinese is to open the door and set off firecrackers. This day, 19 febr 2015, Chinese don’t sleep in the Chinese New Year eve and wait for the Chinese New Year day coming. As soon as midnight is past, people at home should be able to hear the sound of firecrackers one after another.

  • 20 feb: The second day of Chinese New Year is the Son-in-Law Day. Many Chinese families worship the God of Land every 2nd and 16th lunar day. This is the first time of the year to worship the God of Land with animal offerings and ask for safety and luck. Some Chinese will eat dumpling because its shape like ancient Chinese money – gold ingot. The big event for this day is that a married woman can return her mother home. Usually, the newlywed woman’s brother will come to take her sister home in the morning. The husband must escort his newlywed wife to see parents-in-law. Certainly, the married woman needs to prepare Red Envelopes for her parents, nephews and nieces. The lunch time is their reunion dinner. The married couples will leave after 3:00 PM. Long time ago, married woman will bring back a pair of sugar cane and a pair of chicken. Sugar cane stands for the sweet marriage life. The chicken stands for more children.
  • 21 feb: The third day of Chinese New Year is the Mice Wedding Day. The third lunar day of the year is Red Dog day according to Chinese Farmer’s Calendar. Red Dog is the name of the God of Anger, who brings bad luck to people. So people don’t like to go out on this day. They said that if people want to work on this day, they won’t get much progress. Therefore, the Red Dog day is a good excuse for people need a rest. They also said that people should turn off the light and go to bed early, because the night is the Mice’s Wedding Day and we shouldn’t disturb them. The other saying is we want to make it dark, so mice have difficulty to making the wedding, which can slow down mice’s breeding. In the old farmer society, people will leave a few of rice or cake in the corner of a room for the mice at night.
  • 22 feb The fourth day of Chinese New Year is the Welcome Home Day to the God of the Stove. On the 24th of 12th lunar month, The God of Stove went back the Heaven to report his duty, which is the Farewell Day. The God of Stove will return the house on the 4th lunar day of Chinese New Year. Since the Heaven is far away from the Earth, it will take almost a day for The God of Stove to travel down to Chinese family’s kitchen. The God of Stove must leave the Heaven in the morning. He should arrive people house in the afternoon. Therefore, the Welcome Ceremony will be in the afternoon. This same to the Farewell day, Chinese prepare animal sacrifices, fruit, food, cake and wine to worship The God of Stove. After the Welcome Ceremony, Chinese family will explore firecracker to welcome The God of Stove back into the house.
  • 23 feb The fifth day of Chinese New Year is the Welcome God of Wealth Day. Lots of business stores like to reopen on this day. After 4-day vacation, people are ready to go back to work. Most of companies will open business on the 5th lunar day. Many Chinese always select an auspicious hour from Chinese Farmer’s Calendar to open the company door. Company owners who have faith in religion will worship the Gods of Wealth with animal sacrifices before opening business. After the ceremony, they will explode a long firecracker to get people’s attention. The lion dance team will parade on the street with the sound of drums, cymbals and firecracker. They are waiting the stores to invite them to have a lion dance for the opening business. Then lion dance team wish the store have a prosperous business to bring in wealth and treasure all year long. So they will be rewarded a Red Envelope from the store owner after the performance. Sometimes, we can see someone wearing the God of Wealth’s mascot to ask Red Envelope from the opening stores. Many store owners are reluctant to give away the Red Envelope. But no store wants to expel the God of Wealth away.
  • 24 feb: The sixth day of Chinese New Year is the Clear-Water Grandmaster Day, also called the God of Pig Day. This day is the death anniversary of the Clear-Water Grand Master. The Master was a monk during the Song dynasty. He prayed for rain many times to save people during the drought. He persuaded people to build many bridges and to plant trees. Many miracle events happened after his death. Once he lived at Clear-Water Rock Mountain. So people call him Clear-Water Grand Master. His temple will have a big ceremony on this day. Many people are still on holiday vacation and will go to attend the ceremony. In the agricultural society before the age of toilets, and still common in the Chinese country side, Chinese farmers called someone to clean the manure pit every 3rd  to 5th   This is the day to clean the manure pit. Today, some families take care new year trashes and clean up rooms this day.
  • 25 feb: The seventh day of Chinese New Year is The Human Day. According to Chinese genesis, the Huanü-goddess with snake body (2852-2738 B.C.) created chicken on the first day of the first lunar month, dog on the 2nd day, sheep on the 3rd day, pig on the 4th day, cow on the 5th day, horse on the 6th and human on the 7th day. The goddess made many people using mud mixed by yellow soil and water. Also she taught human about marriage so that people can reproduce themselves. Therefore, the 7th lunar day of the year becomes the people’s birthday. Almost no Chinese celebrate this day. Some people just eat angel hair noodle. The long noodle stands for longevity. before Chinese ate seven vegetables (celery, shepherd’s purse spinach, green onion, garlic, mugwort and colewort) on the human day, which can repel the evil spirits and sickness.
  • 26 feb: The eighth day of Chinese New Year is The Completion Day. The holiday for government and business company ends on the 5th lunar day. But some people take long days off until 8th lunar day. The Completion Day means people should return from the holiday vacation and go back to work. All the meat and cake prepared for Chinese New Year should finish on this day. Everything should back to normal. The 8th lunar day of the first month is also the birthday of Yen-Lo King, who is 5th king of Legendary Hell in 5th palace. The 5th palace of the hell is under the northern-east side of the big scorching and burning stone in the sea. The king of the 5th palace is Renle Jing. The palace has 64,000 square miles long. It contains 16 divisions of the small hells. Renle Jing was in charge of the first palace of the hell. He sent the death people who died of injustice back to the human world to have a chance to clear up the false charge many times. Then he was demoted to the fifth palace of the hell.
  • 27 feb: The ninth day of Chinese New Year is the Birthday of Jade Emperor, King of Heaven. Jade Emperor, King of Heaven. According to Daoism, the Jade Emperor lives in the 33rd heaven and governs 33 heavens; so he is the king of heavens. Jade Emperor is a vegetarian. To celebrate his birthday, Chinese prepare three bundles of long noodle, three cups with green tea, five different kinds of fruit and six different kinds of dry vegetables to worship Jade Emperor. But people also prepare five animal sacrifices, different sweet cakes and turtle cake (turtle is a symbol of longevity) on a different table for Jade Emperor’s guardian soldiers. To show sincerity, many people take bath on the 8th lunar night, then wait for the first minute of 8th lunar day to begin the ceremony with their clean body. After the ceremony, Chinese explode the firecrackers. That’s why we can hear the scattered sound of fire crackers from midnight to sunrise. The temple of Jade Emperor will be crowded as the Chinese New Year day since the night of 8th lunar day for those people unable to hold the worship event at home. For the same purpose, Chinese always pray for better luck, safety, health, love or money, when they visit the temple.
  • 28 feb: The tenth day of Chinese New Year is The Eating Day. On the next day of the Jade Emperor’s birthday, there are many food left from the birthday’s ceremony. People have to take care all the vegetable, animal scarifies, cakes and fruit on the 10th lunar day of the year. This is an extended feasting of the Jade Emperor’s birthday.
  • 1 march: The eleventh day of Chinese New Year is The Break Day.
  • 2 march: The twelfth day of Chinese New Year is The Diarrhea Day. If people still eat party food they will most likely develop diarrhea. Many people start prepare for the lantern festival.
  • 3 march: The 13th day of Chinese New Year is The Death Anniversary of General Guan Yu. Some Chinese will visit the temple of General Guan to pray for safety and money luck. Guan Yu was a general in Three Kingdom period, (2211-263 AD), after the late Han Dynasty. He killed a bad guy and disguised himself with a red face when young. He helped his friend and tried to recover Han Dynasty. People remember his brave and skillful fighting for righteousness, loyalty to friends, faith and acts of justice. But he ended with as a beheaded general. After his death, his Lingshen wouldn’t dissipate and his divine image appeared in the sky several times. People worship General Guan Yu to repel evil spirits.
  • 4 march: The 14th day of Chinese New Year is The Lantern Decoration Day. The day before the Lantern Festival, the Lantern Display stage will be building on the open square in the front of temples. People will bring their designed lantern to the display stage for the competition. A dedicate delicate lantern might take more than a month to complete. The ancient lantern has a candle inside to keep it bright. Candle might cause a fire. Today’s lantern is lighted up by the electricity. Therefore people need to test the lantern at night. If any people will offer a performance on the Lantern Festival they will have rehearsal on this day.
  • 5 march: The 15th day of Chinese New Year is The Lantern Festival. The Chinese New Year Festival will end at Chinese Lantern Festival. But the displays of lantern shows will last for another 20 to 30 days. The Lantern Festival is also called Shang Yuan (upper period of the year) Festival in Daoism. This day is the birthday of the Heaven Officer who blesses human luck. So many people have a worship ceremony at home and some go to Taoism temple pray for luck. Yuan-Xiao Festival is a traditional Chinese festival going back to the Han Dynasty of over 2000 years ago. There is a story about the Lantern Festival. A beautiful heavenly bird flew down a village and was killed. The God of Heaven was very anger and wanted to burn down the entire village on the 15th lunar day. One wise guy advised every family hang candle lanterns around the house, carried lantern on the street, burn fire outside to explode firecrackers at the 15th lunar night. The soldiers of the God of Heaven saw the village was on fire from the heaven, and returned back to the heaven. The village survived and people keep the lantern activity on this day every year.

The preparation to celebrate the Chinese New Year festival begins around 8th day of 12th lunar month. The last day of the Chinese New Year festival is on the 15th day of first lunar month. That means it’s required about three weeks to prepare the festival and 15 days to celebrate it.

Traditionally, a Chinese man works outside for living and his wife takes care everything inside home. A month is not long enough for a housewife to clean entire house, put new interior and exterior decoration, prepare new clothes and gifts for all family members, and food for many events. You can image that Chinese New Year festival combines Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year Day together.

The story of the Chinese animal signs

Once upon a time, the 12 animals quarreled about the order of the cycle. Because everyone wanted to take the lead, no decision was made. Finally the animals agreed to ask the Jade Emperor, the ruler of all below Heaven to decide the order. The Jade Emperor decreed to hold a competition. The animals would run across a river, and each animal’s position in the cycle would be set by its place in the race. At that time the cat and the rat were very close friends. The cat wanted to take up a position in the cycle, but he was a sleepy head. So the cat told the rat to wake him up the next morning. The rat promised to do so, but the next morning he was so excited about the competition that he forgot to wake up the cat.

All the other animals gathered at the bank of a river, and the race began. The rat jumped into the ox’s ear without being noticed. Just as the ox was about to reach the opposite side of the river, the rat jumped out of his ear, won the race and became the lead sign of the cycle. The ox became the second, and the others also reached the bank one after another. The pig, lazy and slow, ended up last. The cat didn’t wake up until the race was over, but it was too late, and he was not able to make it into the cycle. From then on, the cat and the rat became enemies. The cat hates the rat so much that every time they meet the cat chases and tries to kill the rat.

There is a popular Chinese folk saying ‘Only one out of ten people born in a year of the Goat finds happiness’ (十羊九不全), which means most babies born in a year of the Goat are destined for failed marriages, unhappy families, and bad luck. Most Chinese people also believe that babies born in a Goat year will grow up to be followers rather than leaders.

Therefore many Chinese couples take steps to avoid having children in a year of the Goat. Many young Chinese couples have been trying desperately to conceive, racing against time to have a baby in the 2014 year of the Horse, which is considered far luckier than a Goat year.

How is the year for you:

For goats almost all years are easy, they say. Goats are easy going and sooner followers than leaders. Being a follower means that it is harder to be self-motivating for a goat than for most other signs in the Chinese horoscope in a goat year. So how is your year going to be?

In the story of the animals meeting Buddha the rat came out first. For the reat this year is either going to be great or a disaster. For ox, dragon, snakle and dog this will be a tough year. These are pushy signs and they will feel themselves being held back in their natural enthusiasm and opportunism. For the rooster things can go either way. Rooster and goat do not need to avoid each other and are no competition. The tiger will do ok. Tiger and goat are more friendly to each other then you might suspect. For the tiger the goat is an easy and welcome prey so in a goat year it seems bounty in life comes more easy and satisfaction with it. The monkey usually does well in a goat year. The goat doesn’t care so much about monkey pranks. Monkeys are caught in their own nets even more in a goat year than normally. Pigs, horses and rabbits usually benefit the most in a goat year.

What sign are you?

RatCowTigerRabbitDragonSnakeHorseSheepMonkeyChickenDogPig
1900
1912
1924
1936
1948
1960
1972
1984
1996
2008
1901
1913
1925
1937
1949
1961
1973
1985
1997
2009
1902
1914
1926
1938
1950
1962
1974
1986
1998
2010
1903
1915
1927
1939
1951
1963
1975
1987
1999
2011
1904
1916
1928
1940
1952
1964
1976
1988
2000
2012
1905
1917
1929
1941
1953
1965
1977
1989
2001
2013
1906
1918
1930
1942
1954
1966
1978
1990
2002
2014
1907
1919
1931
1943
1955
1967
1979
1991
2003
2015
1908
1920
1932
1944
1956
1968
1980
1992
2004
2016
1909
1921
1933
1945
1957
1969
1981
1993
2005
2017
1910
1922
1934
1946
1958
1970
1982
1994
2006
2018
1911
1923
1935
1947
1959
1971
1983
1995
2007
2019

 

To understand your heavenly endowment it is good to understand your heavenly stem, or solar force:

If the year ends in 0 it is Yang Metal.
* If the year ends in 1 it is Yin Metal.
* If the year ends in 2 it is Yang Water.
* If the year ends in 3 it is Yin Water.
* If the year ends in 4 it is Yang Wood.
* If the year ends in 5 it is Yin Wood.
* If the year ends in 6 it is Yang Fire.
* If the year ends in 7 it is Yin Fire.
* If the year ends in 8 it is Yang Earth.
* If the year ends in 9 it is Yin Earth.

If you are a goat your yin will overrule your yang, that means that your mellowness will even out much of the pressure on you. You should accept guidance. In general an animal living in its own year will have more difficulty. Like when babies are born, they have more risk in their life than ever after.

The triangle shows animals of like nature, fire in this case. The square shows animals of incompatible natures. In fact they are niot incompatible, but they follow wuxing patterns. So instead of strengthening each other they need to approach their relationships methodologically. Happiness doesn’t happen to you, happiness is the result of many factors, one of them is living a life in service of your partner and not yourself. You should ofcourse not humiliate yourself, just make yourself less important. Remember: the meek will inherit the earth? That could be a Confucian-Daoist saying. So love, like health is something that you do or avoid doing (another form of doing). So if you want any type is your perfect type. In the same way you are always ready for things to happen. It is only your objections that stop you from achieving happiness. For those looking for a match, the following combinations are flagged as easy and with effort:

Rat

Best with: Dragon, Monkey or Ox
Worst with: Goat, Horse, Rabbit or Rooster

Ox

Best with: Rat, Snake or Rooster
Worst with: Dragon, Horse, Goat, Dog or Rabbit

Tiger

Best with: Horse or Dog
Worst with: Snake or Monkey

Rabbit

Best with: Goat, Dog or Pig
Worst with: Rat, Ox, Dragon, Rooster or Horse.

Dragon

Best with: Rat, Monkey or Rooster
Worst with: Dog, Ox, Dragon or Rabbit

Horse

Best with: Tiger, Goat or Dog
Worst with: Rat, Ox, Rabbit or Horse

Goat

Best with: Rabbit, Horse or Pig
Worst with: Rat, Ox or Dog

Monkey

Best with: Rat or Dragon
Worst with: Tiger, Snake or Pig

Rooster

Best with: Ox, Dragon or Snake
Worst with: Rabbit, Chicken or Dog

Dog

Best with: Tiger, Rabbit or Horse
Worst with: Ox, Dragon, Goat or Rooster

Pig

Best with: Goat or Rabbit
Worst with: Snake, Pig or Monkey

Snake

Best with: Ox or Rooster
Worst with: Tiger, Monkey or Pig

 

 

 

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