How to prepare for getting good luck on Chinese New Year?
Time and tide wait for no man and the Chinese New Year is coming again. This is an important festival for the Chinese people and Thai people of Chinese descent to attend a New Year ceremony according to Chinese calendar.
Do you know? Before the Chinese New Year is designated as the New Year festival, China has a new year 2 days, first, New Year’s Day and, second, New Year’s Day according to season and agriculture. The original Chinese New Year is the festival for worship for agriculture but it has been added activities through the time since the superstition activity to entertainment, celebration, social activities and new customs. In 2007, the Chinese government approved the Chinese New Year as a seven-day holiday, so many people returned home during this festival from around the world. Currently, according to COVID-19 epidemic, the government asked for celebration in its own residential area and a transportation might not be as lively as usual, however, there is a different custom in each area. For a Chinese New Year in Thailand, it is divided into 3 days: Pay Day (Preparation Day), Worship Day (Chinese New Year’s Eve) and Travel Day (Chinese New Year).
Pay Day (Preparation Day)
It is a day that people go out to shop for food, fruit and the offering for gods and ancestors before those stores which the owner is usually Thai of Chinese descent will close the shop and stop selling things to celebrate the festival as well. Nowadays, with the development of technology, many stores have opened online reservation for the worship set with home delivery and it helps facilitate even more.
Worship Day (Chinese New Year’s Eve)
Morning time: Pay respect to holy spirits or that guardian spirits, after completing the worship, burn gold and silver paper according to tradition. However, due to the high PM2.5 dust situation, it might refrain from burning or burning perfunctorily.
Late morning time: Pay respect to ancestors and recall to the deceased relatives and express gratitude, then, bring the offerings to eat together and distribute to neighbors.
Afternoon time: Pay respect to stray ghost or ghost without relatives, then Set off firecrackers to scare away evil and for the prosperity of welcoming the new year.
Night time: Some family might offer additional worship for Tsai Shen Yeh, god of fortune.
Travel Day (Chinese New Year)
It is lucky day; people will be dressed in new colorful clothes especially red that is fortunate and make a brighter life. When visiting relatives or traveling, there is a custom to not speak profanity, unfortunate words, and do not commit a sin. Besides, it is the day that children will receive red envelopes with reserve money, also known as “Hongbao” from adults. On travel day, there is an adjustment during the time to stay at home reducing the risk. People are turning to social media to communicate for greeting “Happy New Year”, blessing and giving gifts to each other online and also giving Hongbao, a red envelope.
Apart from above, there is also another important tradition during the Chinese New Year which is considered that you fully enter the year of the Ox is to ward off a bad luck. According to Chinese astrological beliefs, “Bad Luck Year” refers to the zodiacs that are incompatible to this year of ox and might have bad effects that possibly occur in 2021, those zodiacs are the year of the goat, ox, dragon and dog. Moreover, bad luck year would be solved by taking the worship set to a Chinese temple where the god Tai Sui is enshrined, he will help alleviating unfortune and reducing bad impacts. Besides, if it is not convenient to do a ceremony at temple, people could get a wish from god to protect the fortunes of those who have the bad luck year by donating for animal lives, donating coffins for the bodies that have no relatives, doing blood donation. For those activities will help dispelling bad luck to be a good one also.
Even this year, the ceremony could not be held fully, but it is still possibly celebrated and behave according to tradition for sending encouragement and waking life to continue fighting in this crisis. It could be told that not only the things that enhance the fortune and money according to tradition but also another thing we could do by not waiting for a chance that has only once a year. It is the increase of opportunities by investing to grow your money, each person might have different investment methods, but one interesting way is to invest through mutual funds that has many advantages such as low investment, get tax benefits and has various policies.
For more information: https://www.principal.th/en/mutual-fundth
For more information:
Website: https://www.principal.th/en or Tel. 02-686-9595
Reference:
https://www.silpa-mag.com/culture/article_27101, https://becommon.co/culture/lunar-new-year-family/, https://www.bangkokbiznews.com/news/detail/863225, https://www.thebangkokinsight.com/276961/, https://www.thaipost.net/main/detail/91615, https://www.bangkokbiznews.com/news/detail/916284, https://www.bangkokbiznews.com/news/detail/784113
