Superstitions...or something more?

Happy CNY!!!

Wahaha…

We had our reunion dinner a few hours ago.

A few observations.

1) My family (includes extended, such as uncles, aunts and cousins) seems to be observing less and less tradition every year, including this. And I noticed it’s a general trend even among my friends. Some of these include skipping reunion dinner, doing it beforehand, doing reunion lunches, etc.

2) Less and less people are attending these things as the younger generation becomes older. The regulars are the older generation. My female cousins who are married WILL come back, but later, after the actual dinner. My sister, who I miss, also. I attribute this to the fact that the previous generation has more males, and the current, more females. 2 of my 3 sisters are also overseas.

3) Atmospheres at CNY have been undergoing a slow, steady decline the last decade or so. It is too simple to merely blame hectic lifestyles and lazy to travel. I guess the trends of people working overseas, unable to get leave, and just general the fabric of society/family that holds families together are weakening. Ties are less binding. Traditions and rituals are observed less. I blame a lot of this on the Govt. Why can’t you have better roads? Tolls? The jam is just too terribly offputting for the balik kampong folks. For me, its cool coz I’m a born and bred KL-lite. With the banning of firecrackers, 50% of the atmosphere is gone. And where are the lions!?

After the reunion and the obligatory socializing, I decided to go to the temple. Now. This is interesting.

Ok, firstly, I am not particularly religious. I believe rigorously in science, facts and the natural physical laws of cause and effect. I am not given much to faith, though there are (several) moments of exception. However, last year, I did go to the temple to “seek blessings” for a good year ahead. I don’t really know why I do this, or how seeking blessings from a porcelain deity at the temple enables this blessed good year to occur.

A few observations.

1) OK, sorry, I have to start with this. Now, I am Chinese. I like Chinese girls. Where can I find a large congregation of Chinese girls? Ah. Many Chinese girls go temples on CNY. Ok, this really wasn’t my original aim. But since they really did happen to be there, I couldn’t help but look right? So I looked. And I saw, just like last year, a high number of pretty girls. Goodness. People, the best places to find pretty Chinese girls are temples and churches. I know I know, it is terrible to have sinful thoughts and intentions at such holy places. I cant help it. I console myself with that fact that I can’t NOT look. That’s weird. What I CAN do, is, I go, I pray. When there is a pretty girl, I can look, BUT once she is out of normal vision range, I must stop looking. Meaning I cannot go out of my way to continue to look. No head turning, no body turning, definitely NO tailing. And when I am looking, I look only in admiration and appreciation. The way I see it, especially if you are Christian, is that we are all God’s products, God’s creations. Just like beautiful hills and rivers. So, when we see beautiful hills and rivers, God’s creations, we stop to admire and appreciate. So, when we see beautiful girls, God’s creations, we also can stop to admire and appreciate.

2) Last year, some aberration from my normal behavior occurred, and I went to some temples to seek blessings. Now, it so happens that the year turned out pretty well by all accounts. Perhaps a few areas could have been better but hey that’s being greedy. Now, psychologically, what effect does this have on me? I have 2 options. Option A – Believe that offering jossticks and burnt paper to porcelain deities and muttering a few “Bless Me” phrases have absolutely no effect on my life. How can paying RM50, signing my name on a piece of registration “Auspicious Prayers” paper and handing both over to some temple woman miraculously conspire to make my life great, by making the girl I like like me in return, by making my projects at work arrive at stunning successes? I fail to see any link, unless metaphysical. So, I revert to my cynical 1+1=2 self, and forgo this entire temple visit thingie this year and wing it. Option B – Well. Maybe what I did at the temples had an effect. Maybe not. But do I want to risk it? See. This is screwed. Had I done nothing last year, I can now say ok lets try it this year. It cannot go worse. It can only get better. But after doing so last year, and now, not being sure whether it helped or not, greedy me is reluctant to risk it. Dammit. If I don’t do it, if I have a bad year I will be kicking myself. If I do it, then it means every year from now on the stakes become higher as I have more to lose and I even more need to do it.

Hmm. OK. Well. Tomorrow I want to blog about our rituals and beliefs and superstitions. Mine’s pretty simple – cannot wash hair on first day, must wear auspicious colors i.e. red (recently this has been relaxed to allow yellow and pink), no swearing and cussing (this rule was invented for me I swear), no meat until dinnertime, no sweeping the house on the first day. I think that’s about it – until my mother added a couple more new ones which I will mention tomorrow. At any rate I better write this down and keep it in a time capsule somewhere so that in 300 years when some kid questions his parents about the bizarre rituals they are forcefully subjecting upon him, he can point to the source being some silly superstitious lady 300 years ago (my mum), and not some glorified deity who descended from the clouds to issue a decree among the local god fearing water margin population.

EVERYONE…have a great CNY!