With Christmas and New years behind, there is only one more
holiday to come, Chinese New Year. This is a pretty big deal here in Singapore,
as 80% of the population is Chinese. Most people have between 4 and 5 days off
this year (the 23rd falls on a weekend. Being a foreigner I truly
don’t know much about these celebrations. Naturally I turned to my good friend
google and in turn Wikipedia.
I discovered the history behind the colour red. It
apparently scares this evil spirit away. Many things are surrounded by the idea
of good luck. Spring cleaning is done to help wipe away the bad and create new
space for the good. Monetary gifts are shared in red envelopes. These gifts are
only given in even numbers. Odd numbers are though to be unlucky. This includes
both digits. So you are more likely to get $88 or $8 in an envelope than 10 or
100. Not because people are cheap but because 8 in Mandarin is very similar to
the sound of luck. You will get 40 or 60 instead of 50. Many of the things are similar
to Passover. Celebrations also last for a total of 15 days.
I was thinking this would be a good time to try and jet out
for a few days in Thailand or Vietnam, but just like Christmas and New Years
its $$$. That was the first distraction. Back to Chinese New Year. I discovered
that we were just in the year of the rabbit and heading into the year of the
dragon. Hmm, what year was I born, checking; Rabbit and my element is fire.
Sounds like the combination for a delicious meal.
Chatting with a friend we discussed some of the
characteristics that describe a rabbit. Creativity, sensitivity and easily
taken advantage of don’t exactly express who I am. It is good at describing me
as an open communicator, friendly, outgoing and enjoying the company of others.
The other interesting thing was that I apparently like to learn more about
other cultures. Go figure.
Fire on the other hand, describes me much more closely.
“In
Chinese Taoist thought, Fire
attributes are considered to be dynamism, strength and persistence; however, it
is also connected to restlessness. The fire element provides warmth, enthusiasm
and creativity, however an excess of it can bring aggression, impatience and
impulsive behavior. In the same way, fire provides heat and warmth, however an
excess can also burn.
In Chinese Medicine, fire is
associated with negative emotions of hate and the positive emotion is joy. The organs associated with
this element are the heart
(yin), tongue, and a body's
pulse.” – from Wikipedia.
Dynamism,
strength and persistence hit the nail on the head. The negatives associated
with fire for me are also related; my enthusiasm can sometimes lead me towards
impulsive, and aggressive behavior. While I have learned to be more patient I
certainly can agree that I am impatient, when I want it, seldom do I want to
wait. With all that said though, it is slightly some of this impulsive behavior
that has sent me across the ocean and thrust me into adventure and I am happy
about that.
For dinner I had an odd craving for Sushi, time to dig in. There is salmon, swordfish, eel, egg and that salad is an octopus salad. It was awesome!
See what
distractions can bring. All this when I was originally trying to find out what
the hell these flags mean. PS I still don't know.
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