Feng Shui 2008 : How to welcome the Money God?
You need to make an offering by using white cake, candle, sweet soup with round sweet dumpling, fish, sheep meat, flowers, fruits, tea, money. One hour before you welcome the money god, you need to have a shower. Wear new clothes, the altar need to be cleaned. You then make a prayer for good luck for 2008.
In the Chinese custom, the people would burn the fire crackers to welcome the money god. It is in the belief that the money god would than flow into your life easily without obstacles.
On the eve of the Chinese New Year, all of the family gather together to eat dinner which include all of the best dishes, such as chiken, fish and vegetables. We all eat most of the food and leaving small amount of the food to symbolize that we will have longevity and always have surplus every year.
After we have our dinner, the elderly member of the family will give the unmarried member of the family some special money called “ngap shui chian” , meaning keeping the energy. It is a Chinese ancient custom that we wear a longevity coins round our neck to being longevity luck.
Most of the people do not go to sleep on the eve of the Chinese New Year. This will make your parents live a long life. During midnight, the fire crackers would be burnt to welcome the new year.
The first day of the new year is the most important one. Most of the Chinese people including my family would worship our ancestors. We would use the red dry red fruits called “Hung Jow”, the sweet candy melon, peanuts and fruits. The whole family will than take part in the praying and burn the paper clothing for the ancestors.
After we have completed the ceremony, we than wish each other good luck. We first visit the elderly member of the family, then we visit friends and other distant relatives. We would put our hands together and greet to say “ Kung Hei Fat Choi” . It means wishing you prosperity for the new year. We greet people with a smile even to strangers. We avoid saying negative things.
Things that you must not do is to clean the house on the new year. We do not empty the trash that day. If you do it symbolize the money get wasted and thrown away for the whole year. We must not break any dishes. If we do break things, we have to say good luck and peaceful immediately to get rid of the negative thought. You need to replace the thought of the broken glass or china as the blossoming of the flowers.
The second day of the new year is for the women or wife to go home to their parents. It is best not to go home on the first day for the wife. When the wife go home, they have to take sweet things or candy home. Fruits symbolizes money, it is good to take home with you if you visit your parents. This is for the female member of the family to visit home on the second day. You visit the male side of the family on the first day of the Chinese New Year.
Some people celebrate the Chinese New year till the Luna day Dec 29 or 30 as the last day of the Chinese New Year (It will end on March 7, 2008 western calendar). Some people celebrate only up to the end of the Lunar calendar and some people celebrate right up to the Lunar 15th day (that is Feb 21, 2008).
It all depends if you have time to celebrate or not. Most of the business people do not have a lot of time, so they end the Chinese New Year celebration right up on Lunar 15th. Some people who live in the farm used to celebrate right up to the end of the luna calendar. This is because it would remind them to start the farming season.
The whole Chinese New Year from beginning to the end is very important, so if you stick to the rule for thinking and say the positive things for the whole month, your luck will change.
The Chinese people have a lot of customs. In the morning we need to thank the Devine God who gives the life of the universe. We thank him with fresh flowers, fruits to thank the Jade Devine God. We thank him for bringing us the good luck and ask him to bring more luck, smooth and peaceful life for the coming years.
In the afternoon, we thank our ancestors with vegetables and meat. We also offer New Year cakes that bring good luck and promotion. The name of the cake has a double meaning. We call the new year cake as “Nian Go”. It means that our good luck keeps rising. Everything we do would prosper and would help you take off with your business or your career.
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Very interesting, thanks:)