Chinese New Year Eve at Hok Tek Tjengsin Temple

home title Posted by Boy on Feb 16th, 2010 | 9 comments home title
Chinese New Year Eve at Hok Tek Tjengsin Temple
Chinese New Year, Lunar New Year, or Spring Festival is the most important of the traditional Chinese holidays. It is commonly called “Lunar New Year”, because it is based on the lunisolar Chinese calendar. The festival traditionally begins on the first day of the first month (Chinese: 正月; pinyin: zhēng yuè) in the Chinese calendar and ends on the 15th; this day is called Lantern Festival. Chinese New Year’s Eve is known as chú xī. It literally means “Year-pass Eve”.
Chinese New Year is the longest and most important festivity in the Chinese Lunar Calendar. The origin of Chinese New Year is itself centuries old and gains significance because of several myths and traditions. Ancient Chinese New Year is a reflection on how the people behaved and what they believed in the most.
Chinese New Year is celebrated in countries and territories with significant Han Chinese populations (Chinatowns), such as Mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau, Singapore, Taiwan, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Thailand. Chinese New Year is considered a major holiday for the Chinese and has had influence on the new year celebrations of its geographic neighbors, as well as cultures with whom the Chinese have had extensive interaction. These include Koreans (Seollal), Tibetans and Bhutanese (Losar), Mongolians (Tsagaan Sar), Vietnamese (Tết), and the Japanese before 1873 (Oshogatsu).
In countries such as Australia, Canada and the United States, although Chinese New Year is not an official holiday, many ethnic Chinese hold large celebrations and Australia Post, Canada Post, and the US Postal Service issue New Year’s themed stamps.
Within China, regional customs and traditions concerning the celebration of the Chinese new year vary widely. People will pour out their money to buy presents, decoration, material, food, and clothing. It is also the tradition that every family thoroughly cleans the house to sweep away any ill-fortune in hopes to make way for good incoming luck. Windows and doors will be decorated with red colour paper-cuts and couplets with popular themes of “happiness”, “wealth”, and “longevity”. On the Eve of Chinese New Year, supper is a feast with families. Food will include such items as pigs, ducks, chicken and sweet delicacies. The family will end the night with firecrackers. Early the next morning, children will greet their parents by wishing them a healthy and happy new year, and receive money in red paper envelopes. The Chinese New Year tradition is a great way to reconcile; forgetting all grudges, and sincerely wish peace and happiness for everyone.
Although the Chinese calendar traditionally does not use continuously numbered years, outside China its years are often numbered from the reign of Huangdi. But at least three different years numbered 1 are now used by various scholars, making the year 2010 “Chinese Year” 4708, 4707, or 4647.[2]

Chinese New Year, Lunar New Year, or Spring Festival is the most important of the traditional Chinese holidays. It is commonly called “Lunar New Year”, because it is based on the lunisolar Chinese calendar. The festival traditionally begins on the first day of the first month (Chinese: 正月; pinyin: zhēng yuè) in the Chinese calendar and ends on the 15th; this day is called Lantern Festival. Chinese New Year’s Eve is known as chú xī. It literally means “Year-pass Eve”.

Chinese New Year is celebrated in countries and territories with significant Han Chinese populations (Chinatowns), such as Mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau, Singapore, Taiwan, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Thailand. Chinese New Year is considered a major holiday for the Chinese and has had influence on the new year celebrations of its geographic neighbors, as well as cultures with whom the Chinese have had extensive interaction. These include Koreans (Seollal), Tibetans and Bhutanese (Losar), Mongolians (Tsagaan Sar), Vietnamese (Tết), and the Japanese before 1873 (Oshogatsu).

On the days before the New Year celebration Chinese families give their home a thorough cleaning. It is believed the cleaning sweeps away the bad luck of the preceding year and makes their homes ready for good luck. Brooms and dust pans are put away on the first day so that luck cannot be swept away. Some people give their homes, doors and window-frames a new coat of red paint. Homes are often decorated with paper cutouts of Chinese auspicious phrases and couplets. Purchasing new clothing, shoes, and receiving a hair-cut also symbolize a fresh start.

In many households where Buddhism or Taoism is prevalent, home altars and statues are cleaned thoroughly, and altars that were adorned with decorations from the previous year are also taken down and burned a week before the new year starts, and replaced with new decorations.

The biggest event of any Chinese New Year’s Eve is the dinner every family will have. A dish consisting of fish will appear on the tables of Chinese families. It is for display for the New Year’s Eve dinner. This meal is comparable to Christmas dinner in the West. After the dinner, some families go to local temples, hours before the new year begins to pray for a prosperous new year by lighting the first incense of the year.

(Wikipedia)

Last saturday, I went with other bloggers (Toni, Parvita, Juinita) to Hok Tek Tjengsin Temple. It is located near Standard Chartered Building. The temple was not too crowded, so it was a good place to take pictures. However, when the night falls, they turned on neon lights which disrupt the photo mood. Nevertheless, in overall we’re satisfied with the results and yeah, the Barongsai was great! Too bad none of us has the Canon 5D or 1D to perfectly capture the Night Barongsai Show. Oh by the way, I think Yudieth is a talented photographer. She took some of the pictures here. I should start considering to buy a new camera body from now on :)

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home title 9 Responses home title
  1. tere616 says:
    February 17, 2010 at 4:58 pm

    Boy, that night I went to Petak Sembilan right after we parted and spent the new years eve there ..

    I think you should considered Yudieth to give a camera for her birthday present :-)

    Reply
  2. boy says:
    February 17, 2010 at 8:39 pm

    ssst…jangan kasih dia inspirasi buat minta kamera dong hahahaha

    Reply
  3. Vincentius Ivan says:
    February 18, 2010 at 10:28 pm

    Gile Boy, foto2nya Yudith lebih bagus daripada foto2nya elu :p hahahahaha, cara melihat anglenya, kompo dan framingnya OK banget!

    Reply
  4. emmy says:
    March 7, 2010 at 6:24 am

    I heart your photos! I love great photos hehehe… happy prosperous tiger year!

    Reply
  5. emmy says:
    March 10, 2010 at 3:26 am

    of course! I will add your blog too :)
    thanks!

    Reply
  6. Dony Alfan says:
    March 14, 2010 at 1:35 pm

    Wow, foto2nya superb!

    Reply
  7. boy says:
    March 14, 2010 at 7:03 pm

    Hi mas Donny, thanks udah mampir ya. nanti saya add di blogroll saya yaa

    Reply
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