Making Progress, Chinese New Year
Jan. 25th, 2009 02:33 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
helwen... with getting ready for Chinese New Year, that is. Things are stashed in the fiber room again, but it isn't as scary-looking as before, and some of it is even organized. Hallway is cleared outside the office -- it had become a way station for things we were working on organizing but I couldn't deal with going around it anymore. Stuff is now all sorted and/or in correct area to be further sorted.
L has been cleaning in the kitchen, which is one of the most important rooms to have clean for CNY Eve and First Day. The kitties have all their things here, so it's a more challenging room than it was in Holyoke. It's coming along well.
The bedroom, the other most important room, is ready for vacuuming finally -- been moving things and rearranging things but I guess I'm almost done for now.
The living room is looking pretty spiff too, although that's just because.
***
Why are the kitchen and bedroom(s) the most important rooms at Chinese New Year? Well, the kitchen is where the food is prepared, and a kitchen that is clean and well-stocked is a kitchen that can provide good healthy food so that people can work hard, enjoy life, and live a long time -- security, happiness and prosperity. The bedroom is important, in particular the head of household's room, because they are the primary providers for the family so they need a restful place to restore themselves for the next day. The kitchen/dining room and the bedroom are the places where all the family comes together, so they are the places where relationships are sustained and deepened.
On another note, one of the reasons to make sure the kitchen is clean is that it is the Kitchen God who goes up to Heaven each year to report on the family -- how they're doing, behaving, etc. There is even a tradition, if one isn't sure of how good that report will be, of smearing honey on the lips of the kitchen god statue so that only sweet things will be said. I don't have a statue myself, although I did have a mask hanging in the old kitchen for a while, an old Mexican one from my eldest brother. I think it's a pretty funny custom, to think something so simple could make a difference. Best to keep a decent kitchen and get along with one another year-round, yes?
But I have made up red envelopes for Z and my niece A, which will go into the mailbox later today -- that way I don't have to go outside tomorrow if I'd rather not. And I have a pair of envelopes with my statues of three immortals. Once I've vacuumed in the living room I have to see about setting up pictures of family (supposed to be past ancestors, but I don't have a good photo of just my dad, so my mom ends up with the group too). Then when we get home tonight I can light some incense and say thank you before midnight. CNY is when we give thanks (more than usual) for our family, because for better or worse, without them we wouldn't be here.
Some years we are more observant than others, like the year we were merchanting at Birka and CNY was the same weekend.
Cleaning for CNY can be hard work and quite tiring, but then on the first day you can just relax and enjoy a beautiful home and quiet time. I suppose if we were really "traditional", we'd be flying out to California, to share the time with my mom, siblings, aunts, uncles, and cousins, just as people are traveling all over China to go to their family homes, but we don't do a lot of long-distance traveling. So instead I'll call and/or email family to wish them well.
Happy New Year!
L has been cleaning in the kitchen, which is one of the most important rooms to have clean for CNY Eve and First Day. The kitties have all their things here, so it's a more challenging room than it was in Holyoke. It's coming along well.
The bedroom, the other most important room, is ready for vacuuming finally -- been moving things and rearranging things but I guess I'm almost done for now.
The living room is looking pretty spiff too, although that's just because.
***
Why are the kitchen and bedroom(s) the most important rooms at Chinese New Year? Well, the kitchen is where the food is prepared, and a kitchen that is clean and well-stocked is a kitchen that can provide good healthy food so that people can work hard, enjoy life, and live a long time -- security, happiness and prosperity. The bedroom is important, in particular the head of household's room, because they are the primary providers for the family so they need a restful place to restore themselves for the next day. The kitchen/dining room and the bedroom are the places where all the family comes together, so they are the places where relationships are sustained and deepened.
On another note, one of the reasons to make sure the kitchen is clean is that it is the Kitchen God who goes up to Heaven each year to report on the family -- how they're doing, behaving, etc. There is even a tradition, if one isn't sure of how good that report will be, of smearing honey on the lips of the kitchen god statue so that only sweet things will be said. I don't have a statue myself, although I did have a mask hanging in the old kitchen for a while, an old Mexican one from my eldest brother. I think it's a pretty funny custom, to think something so simple could make a difference. Best to keep a decent kitchen and get along with one another year-round, yes?
But I have made up red envelopes for Z and my niece A, which will go into the mailbox later today -- that way I don't have to go outside tomorrow if I'd rather not. And I have a pair of envelopes with my statues of three immortals. Once I've vacuumed in the living room I have to see about setting up pictures of family (supposed to be past ancestors, but I don't have a good photo of just my dad, so my mom ends up with the group too). Then when we get home tonight I can light some incense and say thank you before midnight. CNY is when we give thanks (more than usual) for our family, because for better or worse, without them we wouldn't be here.
Some years we are more observant than others, like the year we were merchanting at Birka and CNY was the same weekend.
Cleaning for CNY can be hard work and quite tiring, but then on the first day you can just relax and enjoy a beautiful home and quiet time. I suppose if we were really "traditional", we'd be flying out to California, to share the time with my mom, siblings, aunts, uncles, and cousins, just as people are traveling all over China to go to their family homes, but we don't do a lot of long-distance traveling. So instead I'll call and/or email family to wish them well.
Happy New Year!
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Date: 2009-01-25 09:24 pm (UTC)