Artists from the Chengdu Art Group made a show at the Municipal Council of Port-Louis on 18 February 2015.

According to the author, the Chinese New Year, which lasts several days till the full moon, is the most colourful, sensational and joyous festival. It is a time for reckoning with the past and resolving old debts and hurts.

It is not just a new year that the Chinese are celebrating on the 8th February, but a festival of cultural values. For some, it comprises a big family dinner on the eve, red Foong Pow distribution, dancing and amusements till the early dawn to welcome the New Year, firecrackers and lion dance, prayers at the pagodas or mass at church followed by wonderful time of eating, drinking, going to the seaside or seaside resorts, games and cards playing of all sorts and Ma jong. This image of celebrations does not reflect the true cultural heritage practice of over 5,000 years. It is therefore fitting to remind those who have been misled the real significance and importance of the spring Festival.

Of all the Chinese festivals in the Chinese calendar, Lunar New Year is the most colourful, sensational and joyous. It lasts several days till the full moon. It is a time for reckoning with the past and resolving old debts and hurts. It is the appropriate moment to gather all the family together as a source of support, energy and continuity. There is much to be done in the house to invite good tidings and send away the misfortunes accumulated from the past as the positive “yang” forces become dominant. The senior members of each family are all very active and busy to assume their responsibilities with elegance and honour.

Preparations start several days before the New Year, shortly after the winter solstice. Cleaning of dust and cobwebs inside and outside the house is an important function followed by an inventory and getting rid of superfluous, obsolete, unwanted and unused items, sometimes given as gifts to the poor and needy. Then starts the decoration aspect, posting of red lucky couplets, red spring rolls at door gates, and paper cut-outs for the altar, flowering arrangements to attract good luck.

Various purchases are made: new shoes and clothes to replace the old ones, foods and cakes materials for family dinners and parties, the preparation of homemade sweets, cakes and other Chinese delicacies. Offerings of paper gifts and money notes, chicken, fish and pork plates, tea and wine, fruits and cakes for the deities should be ready for use. Many of those New Year needs are available in the delicatessen shop and can be bought today without the chores and hardship to make them, but at what cost?

Sending off the Kitchen god, the family guardian angel who ascends to Heaven with the duty to report to the Emperor Jade and Thanksgiving services to our ancestors and the divinities who have protected us are a must tradition because, in the Chinese culture, we must be grateful for the numerous graces and benefits obtained during the course of the year. It is with age and experience that we discover the true meaning of the practice of those rituals and ceremonies which are our own cultural values composed of a mix of Buddhism, Taoism and Confucianism.

The secret of Chinese families’ and societies’ success and strength resides in the concept of hard work, unity and harmonious environment with a festive touch. Are we not hard working enough with high efficiency and daily output of over 12 hours for almost a whole year? No wonder then that we need a Big Break during Spring Festival time. And what a Break? Hopping into abundance and blossoming with prosperity like killing two birds with one stone.

We have now reached the eve of New Year. While Westerners celebrate the old and the new year in one go focusing more on the future, the Han people as good Taoists celebrate both the closing and the opening of the year differently. The closing thanksgiving ceremony to Heaven is held at home in the morning with traditional offerings of meat, tea, wine, fruits, sweets and paper gifts (to be burned later) in an overcrowded table.

Prayers and wishes with the burning of incense, lighting of joss sticks accompanied by the noisy and thundering sound of fire crackers and fuming smoke in the air give the impression of an apotheosis event. This will be followed in the evening by a family banquet dinner where all the living members honour ancestors protocol wise and keep lineage bonding stronger and deeper. Everyone peppers their speech with words and phrases suggesting auspicious things. No unpleasant words and thoughts are allowed. Delicious and harmonious foods are then served. After dinner parents give their children red Foon Pow envelopes containing lucky money.

Then preparations are on for the welcome of the New Year. This time, the whole offerings are vegetarian dishes in honour of Buddha. New fruits, sweets, cakes, paper gifts (also to be burned later) and tea – but no wine – are offered. It must be now around midnight. Sparkling firecrackers containing as much as 50,000 pieces are lighted to announce the coming of a new year. The night rituals are similar to the morning ceremony of joss sticks, incense and burning of paper gifts and money. Then there is the rush to pagodas of different divinities and back home for a good rest as the next day will also be a busy one. For the first day only vegetarian food is served.

It is good to know something about the complex  bureaucratic pantheon of Heaven presided by the God of Heaven, known to the Chinese as Emperor Jade. All the Divinities (wrongly called Gods) and the Angels are back in Heaven for the New Year. They will come back to Earth on specific dates for their missionary duties near Humanity.

How do we explain the millions of followers they have  across the globe? Lao Tse, Buddha, Confucious, Kwan Tee, Kwan Yin (goddess of Mercy), Tee Koung, Pao Koung, to name a few, have all been living human beings like Mahatma Ghandi, mother Teresa and Nelson Mandela but in their time there was no Nobel Prize awards nor beatification process, yet they have made such an impact that today, after several centuries, their memories are still intact and they are venerated like saints (gods).

There are 15 days of celebrations till the Festival of Lantern which closes the Spring Festival. A sequence of the traditional events are as follows: married women visit natal homes (2nd day) birthday  of Humanity or brothers and sisters harmony, day (7) where seven auspicious vegetables are served, the descend of Emperor Jade(8th night) and to close the year, the festival of Lanterns.

As China is becoming the No1 super world power – and  the centre of world gravity is moving back to China –, it is a pity that with the diminishing number of Sino Mauritians, initiatives have been lacking in the deepening of the rich Chinese cultural heritage. While hundreds of Confucious Institutes have been established throughout the world, it seems that here in Mauritius the governmental project looks like a born death.