Happy New Year!
Since I missed the western new year’s…here’s to the Year of the Dog! While it’s popularly known as Chinese New Year…it’s actually widely celebrated in most Asian countries and one of the most important holidays in Korean tradition. It’s a day to remember the old and look forward to the new year. The house is cleaned. Ancesteral tables are set up with offerings of food and drinks. And the whole family partakes in the festivites.
New year’s always reminds me of a funny childhood experience. Tradition taken out of context often sounds like the crazy talk of elders. Growing up, I remember poking my chopsticks into my bowl of rice making them stand straight up and down. Hey, the chopsticks had to go somewhere and it actually stayed upright. Boy, did I get an earful for doing that. Mom asked me if I actually was wishing death upon an elder and forbade me to ever do that again. Back then I thought, ugh, another insane rule I have to follow. As I grew older, I pieced together the unspoken reality.
Traditionally for New Year’s Day as part of the ancestral offerings ritual, eating utensils are placed straight up in the rice so that the ancestors would know that the food is for them. So by doing it at a dinner table full of adults, it was perceived as a bad omen to the living elders. Sheesh, how was I supposed to know that?? *grin*
