Spring is on its way and you can say goodbye to Old Man Winter. The Spring Festival is here. We welcome the Chinese New Year today. “Gong Xi Fa Cai!” It’s the Year of the Fire Monkey. It is time to make wishes for luck, prosperity and good fortune, and to ward off evil spirits.
Here are some important things I did to bring in the Fire Monkey Year:
• I woke up early and prepared my house and property. I cleaned the house thoroughly inside and out on Sunday. Any clothing that I haven’t been wearing, I gave away to make room for a new wardrobe. A clean home means sweeping away any misfortunes to make room for a fresh start to the New Year.
• I planted red flowers in front of the house and hung up five-element prayer flags to bless my property and the surroundings.
• When you walk into my house, you will see that I have three red monkeys at the front door for the Fire Monkey Year and lots of dragons and phoenix all around the house to bring in prosperity.
Today, I am wearing all new clothes and even some red underwear. Red symbolizes prosperity. I’ll make a fire puja tonight and set off firecrackers to drive away any evil spirits. I brought all my slippers and shoes indoors before I went to bed to protect them from the thieving hands of evil spirits. Tonight, I’ll eat fish for a “good luck” dinner and long noodles for long life. I always have tangerines in the house this time of the year for success, and pomelos to bring in wealth. I’ll also eat celery for wisdom, plums for my brain, and sweets for a sweet year.
Now, that’s all the good stuff. Here is what to avoid:
1. Don’t use sharp objects in the three days before and after New Year’s Day. Blades and needles mean a hard year ahead. I guess I’ll be doing Medical Qi Gong on people for the next few days.
2. Avoid the number 4 or doing anything in fours. Four is a bad luck number. The word for four has the misfortune of sounding like the word for death in Chinese.
3. Don’t wear white or black which are traditional colors of mourning.
4. Don’t eat congee or rice porridge on New Year’s morning. It symbolizes poverty. Congee is mainly water boiled with rice and it can be seen as a poor man's food.
5. Avoid buying new shoes until after day 15 so as to avoid rough seas in the year ahead.
6. Definitely don’t sweep the house on New Year's Day, so as to avoid sweeping away good fortune.
7. Avoid swearing, or talking about death, ghosts and the past year. Now is a time to be positive and to look forward to a positive future.
8. Don’t take medicine or break any household objects.
9. Forget about washing your hair or visiting the hairdresser for a few days; you don’t want to wash good luck away.
Although many of these things sound like superstition, I don’t take any chances.
I wish you the best in your Health, Wealth, and Happiness!
Happy New Year!
Dr. Wu Dhi
