Vesak

Monday is a public holiday in Singapore, Vesak Day, (also known as Wesak) is the "Buddha's birthday"; it's not really his birthday, more a combination of his birth, subsequent enlightenment and final nirvana (achieved by death). Tagging the celebration as a birthday should be considered a Western cultural influence and possibly a simplification of the complexity of Indian subcontinent's spiritual narratives.

Travelers may face congestion with the ICA warning on Thursday to expect the two border checkpoints over to Malaysia to be extra busy as many people head off home or for a short break over the long weekend. On the plus side, the trains will run all night Sat and Sun.

Singapore and Malaysia set the date as the 15th day of the 4th lunar month, and since Chinese New Year was 7th Feb 2008, so Vesak is ~22nd May 2008. In keeping with the Buddha's teachings and way of life, Vesak is perhaps the quietest of the public holidays as Buddhists don't go around setting fire to things, letting off fireworks, having lavish parties or other such excesses. Instead, there will be events at temples, charitable works, readings of sutras, modest vegetarian meals and compassionate behavior. Ommmmmmmmmmmm.

Wealth, Success & Prosperity. Guaranteed.

The local Chinese temple ran 12 days of celebrations over the CNY (6th Feb - 23 Feb) and their game plan for devotees was comprehensive. Suggested topics for supplication were success at work, excellence in your studies, good interpersonal relationships, good marriage, to ask for a life partner or offspring, avoidance of lawsuits and lastly, safety & security for one's family.

First, to ensure the temple's control of wealth in this year of the Rat, they permitted devotees to nourish their vault (you could donate money to the temple). In fact, three vaults; Heavenly vault for the future, Earthly vault for past debts and the Waterly (sic) vault for the present.

7th day of New Year (13h Feb): Man's Birthday. Deities descend to grant wishes which are granted on the 15th Feb as the heavenly deity, Heavenly First Official Emperor descends from heaven.

8th day (14th Feb): Jade Emperor's Birthday. Celebrations run from 11pm through to 3am with an experienced priest from China officiating. Prayer packs (incense paper, fruits) were available for S$50 (£17).

15th day (21st Feb): Heavenly First Official Emperor. This is an important one as wishes made on this day are said to be 10 times more likely to come true than those made on other days.

Throughout, complimentary vegetarian noodles (bee hoon) were available. Although not a spiritual belief system, renowned feng shui master Mr. LI Yu-Lin was on-site for advice also. I didn't attend but to Westerners (Christians), the unashamed emphasis on self and money is a notable difference of tone.

Universe: One Year Older

Phew! what a Christmas / New Year / Chinese New year / Vacation combo. I managed to get through without major casualties but for local Singaporeans, it's the obligations around CNY that will have dominated. CNY is a time of renewal, so the shops do a roaring trade in bras and knickers as, in theory, you should change out your wardrobe. It's also a time to throw out old furniture and household goods so the local council organise "big rubbish collections" to avoid the inevitable discarded sofas in the void deck. You still get discarded sofas in the void deck, right in front of the lifts where people normally leave stuff. Civil servants must despair at the lack of public cooperation in their well-crafted schemes.

Salesmen run around for weeks with cars full of diaries as gifts to their customers, no matter that the client will likely receive one from their own company and then many more from vendors. It's an obligation.

Much fish salad will have been consumed at 8-course Lo Hei lunches, with the wise eaters just snacking their way through to avoid bloat while the restaurants charge S$100 (£35) a head. Their year starts with a nice bonus.

As for the pause in postings, I'm conflicted because I'd like to believe you've missed the usually steady flow of posts but perhaps I'm hoping you haven't noticed the long gap. Status update: I'm back, the universe is one year older and nothing big has changed. Stay tuned for more small stuff.

The Season of Receiving

Chinese New Year (CNY) fell on the 18th February this year and lasts for 2 weeks. It is by far the biggest event in the Chinese cultural calendar and has numerous rules, expectations, rituals and general fuss associated with it. The council has been stringing up lanterns around public areas and holding switching on events together with the obligatory lion dance.

It's difficult to summarise the affair succinctly but to say it is a time of renewal comes close. Debts are cleared, the house tidied, new clothes bought (all new wardrobe is possible) and symbols of prosperity are created. And there are many of the latter, including oranges, pineapples & fish salads.

The fish salad (lo hei or yu sheng) has a complex history but has more recently become codified into a standard which is available at all restaurants as a solid money earner especially for the business crowd as suppliers take customers out and lo hei while expressing hopes for big money contracts.

The calendar for CNY is roughly:
day before: family reunion dinner at restaurant; give red packets of money
Day 1: Mostly stay at home, or visit elders
Day 2: Visiting day, ritual trouping around relatives with biscuits, presents, red packets
Day 3: No visiting relatives, but may visit ancestor's graves
Day 7: more lo hei
Day 9: Big in Hokkien culture (hence Singapore) to venerate the Emperor of Heaven
Day 15: Normal end of official CNY, may have lantern festival.
Day 16: (start dieting).

I tried to figure out the rule for calculating the date (based on the incredibly complicated
lunisolar calendar) but failed. Better to just use an almanac. The only thing to remember is that it is never 1st Jan, so people with birthdays early in the western year cannot use those simple "what Chinese animal are you" charts without remember to check the exact date.

So what's it all about? A season of giving? goodwill? happiness? Not really, more of paying respect to family and ancestors and doing everything humanly and divinely possible to wish for financial prosperity in the coming year. A heartfelt season of receiving.