The Chinese New Year, also known as ‘chun jie’ is the most important festival in the Chinese calendar. It symbolizes a fresh start with new hopes for happiness and prosperity. It is also a time for renewing family relationships through family reunion dinners and social visits between relatives and friends. In fact, ‘chun jie’ reminds the Chinese community that strong families are important, as they are the basis for a strong society.
Being Chinese Christians, we should celebrate ‘chun jie’ to maintain our Chinese identity and heritage, but with a Christian persepctive.
Preparations begin up to a month earlier with spring-cleaning of homes in anticipation of guests. Non-Christians may decorate their homes by putting up ‘chun lian’ (spring couplets) at their doorways or displaying auspicious characters like ‘spring’ or ‘luck’ in their homes. But Christians may substitute these with couplets with Christian messages. Festive goodies can also be prepared. Some goodies with symbolic names, like the circular brown rice cake, ‘nian gao’ (meaning ‘rising higher every year’) can be Christianized to symbolize a wish to ‘rise higher every year’ in our spiritual development.
Similarly, the custom of exchanging oranges can be Christianized. The word is pronounced ‘gam’ in Cantonese (and it also sounds like the word for gold in Cantonese). This gift of oranges represents a blessing for prosperity. For the Christian, gold signifies the need for a genuine faith (1 Peter 1:7). So this gift of ‘gam’ can become a prayer and blessing for genuine faith for the Christian.
The mutual exchange of New Year gifts as tokens of appreciation to relatives and good friends is a good practice. These gifts symbolize a mutual exchange of love and respect. Younger children feel loved, Elders feel respected. Ultimately, all these activities are meant to help deepen family bonds as family members prepare for the New Year together.
The Christian family should make the annual New Year’s Eve reunion dinner a thanksgiving celebration of the mercies of God in providing for, and protecting the family. It can be done like a ‘watch-night service’ with the head of the family leading his members. A candle can be lit in the name of the Lord to mark the beginning of the dinner-service. Wesley’s grace may be sung before the head of the family offers a thanksgiving prayer for the family. Dinner can proceed. A suitable passage of Scripture may be read after dinner. Family members may then share about the blessings received, the wrongs committed and their wishes for the New Year.
The gathering may end with a time of intercession (prayer & watch) for one another. Parents may then present a New Year ‘red packet’ to each of their unmarried children. The red packet symbolizes life and love in the blood of Christ and is a reminder of the family’s Christian heritage. The children may return a gift, either cards or oranges, to show their respect and gratitude to their parents. Family members may then give a thanksgiving offering to God. The offerings may then be presented to the church as a thanksgiving offering to the Lord.
Family members may then make final preparations by having a final clean-up before welcoming the New Year at midnight by wishing each other a ‘Happy New Year’.
The blogger would like to acknowledge and thank the author Reverend Francis Ngoi and the Chinese Annual Conference of the Methodist Church in Singapore for this article and with permission to share this article on Chinese New Year with believers and pre-believers at large who read this blog.
Glory and Praise be to God the Father,
God the Son, God the Holy Spirit Now and Always! =)
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