Thursday, February 25, 2010

LOVE is in the Air…


Feb 14 2010 was a big day for us!

What comes to mind when you think of the date??? Valentine’s Day obviously…but…hmm… what would we good ol’ seminarians do on this special lover’s day beside locking ourselves up in our room and sulk? Haha! Well, we have our ways to make the best out of it.

Actually, what helped to make things simpler this year was the fact that besides celebrating Valentine’s day, it was also the Chinese/Lunar New Year. So the Chinese and Vietnamese (yours truly included) decided that since this we cannot go home and celebrate this very special day of ours back home, we might bring it over and celebrate it in a big nice way with the international community here.

Of course, we knew better than having the celebration on the 14th itself (being a Sunday, everyone is probably out partying, and ahemm… contrary to what everyone might think, I am sure some of us do have unforgettable Valentine’s celebrations somewhere out there :P), so we decided to have our little celebration on the 15th instead.

Just in case you are not clear with the celebration of the Lunar New Year, there are many rituals and customs to follow. Two of the very important events would be the reunion dinner (where all family members were to gather together for a truly sumptuous dinner on the eve of New Year), and the paying of respect to the Gods and elders on New Year morning. What we decided to do was to have a little Lunar New Year liturgy incorporated into the evening prayer, followed by the eating of a special Chinese new year dish… Yu Shang (literally translated as ‘raw fish’… I'll get more to it later).

So, during the evening prayer we started off with a little introduction, and while we sang the opening hymn, 4 of us Chinese and Vietnamese paid our respect to God with joss sticks. At the end of the divine office, a brief introduction was given to everyone on the ritual of tea serving to the elders. (as customary, the traditional Chinese would serve Tea to their elders on Chinese New Year morning). Right after, we invited our seniors up to the front and we started the ceremony.


It was rather awkward at first when the first 7 students prepared to serve the tea to the seniors, but as one student started kneeling, everyone follow suit. What came after was that all the students said their wishes to the seniors, upon which they serve a cup of tea to them. After drinking the tea, the seniors in return extend their wishes and blessings back to the student, and as a symbolic gesture, gave the students two mandarin oranges.


After the first group of students completed serving tea, everyone else was quite ready to get their hands on it. There were laughter and giggles, and everyone pretty much enjoyed the experience.


Now… here’s the thing. Actually, in the real tradition, the seniors are not suppose to return their blessings with mandarin oranges, instead, they were suppose to return with ‘Ang Pao”. (Chinese Red Packets, and of course… with $$$ inside the packet). We figured that the seniors would probably have to starve themselves if they were to give us Ang Pao, but seriously, how can we neglect such a good custom???


Well, thanks to the real BIG generosity of our Rector, we got to propagate this wonderful tradition. Fr Brendan had in fact prepared Ang Paos for all the students, and after the tea ceremony, he stayed back and gave it to us, without doubt, all of us received our “blessings” with a great display of our sparkly teeth.



After the liturgy, we adjourned to the refractory for yet another exciting activity. Oh… I forgot to mentioned, the Centennial group also decided to hold a party with the community on that evening to celebrate the birthday of Fr Allen and Br. Shaun.


Before the party started, Eugene took over the floor and introduced the special Chinese Dish “Yu Shang” or “Lou Hei” (schooping up). It was a dish in which all ingredients represented a good wish for the year, and while mentioning the wish, the particular ingredient is mixed into the center plate. At the end of the mixing, we have a colourful array of ingredients representing fortune, fame, love, health, etc etc… All were then asked to take a pair of chopsticks and mix and toss the ingredients as high as possible. (The higher they go, the more one receives receipt of the wishes). After the fun tossing, we started eating and the party began.




What came after was the usual games and songs, and Fr Allen and Br Shaun had their fair share of limelight for the night when they were asked to participate on activities for their birthdays.

Well, there you go, a truly wonderful day spent with a truly wonderful community. Although I’m far from home, I did feel the wonderful joy of Chinese New Year oozing in the air.
Here’s wishing everyone a truly wonderful and joyous year of the Tiger. May all your dreams come true, maybe you filled with blessings and graces. And as a typical Chinese would wish… may this year bring you fame, fortune, love, good health, good career, plentiful descendents, babies………

(-Terence)

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