Blessed Chinese New Year

By Ps Alby Yip

Blessed Chinese New Year to you all in Zion Bishan who are celebrating it! I trust most of you have enjoyed the past few days of celebrations. I wonder how your rounds of visitations went. For me, CNY visitations previously have been a love-hate relationship. It’s not that I loved visitations when I was young because I received ang-pows, and now hate them because I need to give ang-pows after I got married.

As a child, CNY visitation was a love-hate thing because I would bump into distant relatives, especially those around the same age. I remember it was so awkward trying to say “Hi” sitting unsettlingly not knowing what to say next. The dominant thought in my mind was, “When are we moving to the next house?” But not sans the ang-pows.

When I was older, sometimes visitation talking points were all about who was holding what jobs and, hinting, at the perks, pay and status. Otherwise, it would be how terrible the bosses and colleagues were. For singles, their relationship status often became the focal point because people don’t know what to talk about!

My feelings about CNY visitation changed when I was older. I realized we visited fewer houses each year because the matriarchs and patriarchs had passed on one by one. The younger generation somehow did not quite feel visitations were as important. A distant uncle told us the year after his mum passed on, “My mum is no longer around. You all need not visit anymore.”

I can only lament all my missed opportunities to interact with my distant relatives, albeit once a year. As I thought about it, I wish I were conscious of the many talking points for Christians concerning CNY, especially towards non-Christians. Maybe let me leave you with some thoughts here:

1. Red. Red is a very important colour in Chinese New Year. It symbolises auspiciousness and good fortune. Our talking point can be that red is also very important to Christians and it too has great symbolism. I suppose you know how and what to continue with here.
2. New beginnings. CNY marks the start of the new lunar year and with it all things new. Christmas too marks a new beginning in the history of mankind. The birth of the Son of God has ushered in new hope for humanity.
3. Reunion. I guess many people take reunion as the meal before the first day of CNY. But all the visitations, beyond paying respect to the seniors of the clan is also a form of reunion. Of course, Christmas is also a time of reunion. That instead of us “visiting” God, God visited us that we may be reunited with Him.
4. Ang-pows. How can we not talk about ang-pows. CNY ang-pows are meant to be the seniors blessings to the juniors to bring them “good luck”. Christmas is God’s greatest gift to mankind. It brings to man more than what this earth can give us. It gives us eternity and the promise of God’s presence now and in the eternity to come.

I believe you can add to the list by now. Once again, wishing you all a Blessed Chinese New Year. Have many blessed visitations and conversations too. But do it respectfully.