asia's lunar new year

in many parts of the world--meaning those places not found in asia, specifically east asia-the coming lunar new year is often forgotten; and if it's remembered at all, it's called chinese new year, which is a huge misnomer because china is not the only country in asia and not the only country to follow the lunar calendar and, thus, celebrate the lunar new year.

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this year, lunar new year falls on sunday, january 29, by the gregorian calendar, alternately known as the solar calendar or the western calendar. i am fortunate enough to have been in at least four different asian countries over the years as the old lunar year passed into the new lunar year and can say that there are many similarities between east asian celebrations (such as what happens in china or korea), but not so many similarities between east asian celebrations and south or central asian celebrations (such as nepal or thailand).

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here in korea, lunar new year celebrations by non-christian families tend to focus on the reverence of deceased ancestors on the paternal side of the family (leave it to the christians to fuck up a perfectly excellent cultural distinction of korean society; it's only in recent years that i've learned that korean christians don't celebrate the lunar new year like the majority of koreans do. when i made several queries into the reasons as to why christian families don't participate in the same way that is traditionally korean, i was informed that what is a traditional korean way of celebrating is related in no small part to buddhism and, thus, renders it damn near illegal by the christian church for a christian korean family to perform the traditional korean ceremonial rites associated with lunar new year.) the day before the actual day of the new year is devoted to preparing busloads of food to set on special tables. these tables are set and displayed with foods special to the deceased in particular and to the the area of korea from which the deceased hails (in the case of my wife's family, who come from a small island in the south of korea, there is an abundance of seafood each time there is a setting; in the case of a family from the mountains, there might be an abundance of foods specific to that place). after the food is cooked and placed on the table in the appropriate sequence, then the immediate family perform deep, traditional bows as an act of paying respects to the whole lineage of deceased ancestors. unfortunately for you feminists out there, the only respects paid are to the family of the father of each family, and most specifically to the male ancestors.

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now, some of you might be wondering why i've assailed the christians for not participating in this tradition. well, the reasons are fairly simple...

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it's been written by me in earlier postings that i am not much on religion, though i am a moslem; it's also been written here that i prefer celebrating a living person's birthday than the anniversary of the death of someone whom i've never met. nonetheless, it's a unique part of korean culture, this tradition of lunar new year celebration. though i am a moslem and though i prefer not celebrating the death of some long-ago ancestor, i happily participate in the bowing to the ancestral line of my wife's family simply because it's part of the tradition of korea and of my wife's family. too, i've participated in similar ceremonies at the home of my korean "family", as well. the christians don't usually have this kind of ceremony anymore because, apparently, this kind of tradition of bowing down to the ancestral line is a form of false idolatry. that's fucking insane. before i came to korea, and when i used to be a christian, how could it have been "wrong" if i'd decided every year on the anniversary of my grandfather's death to honour him by performing some simple ceremony of respect and homage at his gravesite or in my house or in a bar or in a barn or in a tree or in a cave or whilst in the midst of intense copulatory exercises with a group of local prostitutes? christians nowadays generally celebrate the lunar new year in a much more subdued way than their ancestors of yore, which begs the question: why is it that western society excoriates moslems for extreme and fundamental adherence to the Quran while completing accepting the extreme and fundamental interpretations of the bible by christians? of course, the answer is that most of western society is based upon the principles of christianity and not islam--but christians often like to brag about how tolerant they are and how flexible god is to the types of worship that are allowed, when in reality christians are often not flexible and no different from the militant moslems that they claim are such a threat to the u.s., western civilisation, and world peace.

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this christian way of not participating is all a bunch of hypocritical bullshit.

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but i digress from my happy thoughts of lunar new year, as i am wont to do when i get rolling. lunar new year is a unique celebration here in korea and one that i feel is a shame that the legions of non-koreans living here have never had the chance to participate in or even simply witness. my personal thoughts of it all notwithstanding, i feel truly blessed to have been able to witness, much less participate in, such celebrations--and my feelings of good fortune, i feel, have been multiplied exponentially because i've been able to witness it by more than one family and i've witnessed, all told, more than a handful of these ceremonies. it's a unique part of korea, a unique piece of world culture, and a special memory in my full complement of experiences. though there are aspects of the strong concentration by korean society on patriotism and family that i despise, i do find it strangely moving to spend such a holiday as this with my in-laws and my korean family because i realise how lucky i am to be a non-korean involved in such a korean celebration.

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of course, it does help that a staple of many a korean family's celebration revolves around drinking, eating, and shooting the shit.

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more to follow on the family aspect of korean society...