Happy Chinese new year!

Current location: Hacienda Heights, CA

Currently drinking: Chrysanthemum tea

Currently listening: Float, (Pacific Air)

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新年好！Yes, it’s still Chinese new year. Nothing beats a holiday that lasts 15 days filled with good food (CARBS!) and high spirits (the lunar new year officially began Feb. 10). In addition to calling so many people in my family, this year’s festivities included a cultural lunch-and-learn with my “west coast family” (love ya Mama Karol) and even a multi-cultural potluck with a group of coworkers. Love it.

Hsi Lai Temple. Feb. 10, 2013

It’s also a period to reflect and reappreciate what you have. Depending on regional, national or personal family background, many visit temple at least once during the first two weeks of the new year. Some go to hear (and feel) the gongs and pounding drums that ring out worries from the previous year — “Stamp out everything bad with one big bang,” one person told me. Others go to pray, to burn incense and light a candle for illumination.

 

For me, going to temple is about mentally closing the book on past anxieties and starting again with a clean slate. It’s about finding a quiet place where I can really clear my mind of all distractions and think about my family (Grandma, there’s always a place in my thoughts for you). And though it’s a different experience for each person, Buddhism at its simplest is a mindset —  an attitude towards how to handle life’s challenges and how to treat others.

Exhibit A: As I walked up the steps to the main shrine, this message greeted me, spelled out across the platform in flowers:

Unwavering advancements despite life’s twists and turns leads to the attainment of happiness and wisdom

Simple but powerful, right? Backpocket that for when you have a bad day.

Temple on new year is also a wonderful way to be surrounded by people who share similar cultural values — more than 10,000 trickled through the Hsi Lai temple that first Sunday. I love the feeling of collectiveness. If I’m not at home with my parents or in China with my greater extended family, then thank goodness I’m in L.A. Where else in America can I find a place like this?

Top: A normal non-holiday weekday on the main plaza. Bottom: Early morning on the first day of new years. 10,000+ showed up

The overcast sky was also perfectly beautiful for the day — rain symbolizes flowing prosperity,  after all. (I think superstorm Nemo counts, and L.A. even got a little drizzle that weekend.)

And like any day in Los Angeles, the sun broke through by noon, clearing the way for an open plaza full of color:

Annnd of course, there’s the food. For 15 days, it’s like Thanksgiving x 1000000. Thankfully for yours truly, the vegetarian, fish is always on my family’s table (“Yu,” the Chinese word for fish, sounds like the word for “plenty,” symbolizing surplus and prosperity).

Dumplings are also popular; its always a group effort to make them as a family. Leave it to my dad to text me photos of all the homemade cooking that I’m missing.

(I settled with my own dumplings, and a crunchy vegetable that has a hollowed-out stem. Some say its tube-like shape represents smooth sailing/ a journey with no interruptions. I’ll take it.)

And don’t forget to eat a tangerine! Since citrus fruits include segmented parts/slices that form a well-rounded whole, they symbolize a complete family connected by individuals.

Now go celebrate new years 2.0 (Quite different from your typical Dec. 31). Call a family member. Tell them how much they mean to you. And bon appetit! You’ve got a few more days to carb out.

Until the next reflection,
Rosanna

(I’ll give a lil tech plug: All photos in this post were taken with my iPhone5. I love it SO MUCH more than my iPhone4 #AppleSnob)

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24 Feb This entry was published on February 24, 2013 at 12:19 AM. It’s filed under Author: Rosanna, Food, Los Angeles, Photography, Reflections, Travel, Uncategorized and tagged Buddhist temple, Chinese New Year, Dumplings, Lunar new year. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post.