Little New Year and Third Quarter Moon

Kitchen God I drew a few years ago.

Today is called Little New Year - it falls on the day of the waning half moon in late January or early February - one week before Chinese New Year, on February 1st this year. I enjoy having this second opportunity to celebrate a new year, and think of this one as the "Happy and Lucky" celebration.

Little New Year is also known as the Kitchen God Festival because this is the day that the Kitchen God, Tsao-wang, and his wife, Wang Bo-jia, leave to report to heaven. In a Chinese home, a picture of these two gods, printed or drawn on rice paper, hangs in a niche just above the stove.

Today's waning moon energy is yin - quiet, internal, heart-driven, intentional Being-ness. At this phase we can ease off a bit on actively pursuing goals, slow down, go within, and attend to inner work and self-care.

 

Agenda today:
1. Renewal plan and self-care plan
2. Housework

3. Nian-hua and good-luck calligraphy

4. Forced Blossoms
5. Make Jiao-zi dumplings 

6. Kitchen God Good-bye Ceremony

1. Renewal and self-care plan:

I try to renew all four dimensions of my life (body, mind, heart, and spirit), as Stephen Covey taught: I spend about an hour each day on a combination of physical, mental, and spiritual regeneration activities, plus work to improve my social skills and relationships. Today's waning half moon is my opportunity to review how I'm doing, and make note of what could be improved.

From my Journal: 

-Body: I tweaked my shoulder again, but it's improving quickly: Prioritize a floor stretch plus ice every day. Our new toddler dance time every afternoon is energizing! 

-Mind: I really like my themes for a daily reading rotation, but I need to stop allowing my writing to take over my reading time.

-Spirit: I'd like to schedule in a daily awareness practice of some kind - maybe a toddler scavenger hunt?

-Heart: I'm going to add listening awareness to my virtue chart this week.

Renewal plan this next month: 

• 5 am - Read and journal (before I write)
• 6 am - Virtue chart and journal review
• noon - Floor stretch + ice
• 1 pm - Awareness scavenger hunt

2. Housework:

In China a whole month is spent in preparations for the New Year festival - cleaning, cooking, and decorating the house. All of the things displayed at Chinese New Year are symbols of the ideal life - tokens and reminders of the good things we hope for: Luck, wealth, long life, and happiness.

The first and most important preparation for the Chinese New Year is (surprise!) housecleaning. Families give the house a thorough cleaning in the weeks before Little New Year. In Chinese culture, it’s bad luck for old dust to be left in the New Year, and this month families put everything in order: Scrub floors and cupboards, repaint doors, and trim yards.

I've been cleaning mold and mildew all month, and this week I'm going to finish up in the bedrooms.

3. Nian-hua and good-luck calligraphy:

When the house is clean, I can begin to fill it with the traditional New Year’s decorations. The traditional colors  are red and gold: Gold is the color of wealth and success, and red is the color of good luck and happiness.

My students and I make our own nian-hua showing what we want the new year to bring us
(goldfish are symbolic of wealth).

Chinese families love to hang colorful Nian-hua (New Year pictures) all through the house. These are also called "happy and lucky pictures", because they show symbols of the things folks long for in the new year: Good-luck, wealth, long life, and happiness. 

Practicing the fu character, for luck.

Before the New Year, the family removes all the old pictures from the walls and buys new pictures to replace them. Some are hand-painted, but most are simple, inexpensive wood block prints.





Beautiful Chinese calligraphy is another traditional decoration at the New Year, especially the fu character, which means luck. 

We are beginner’s, but it’s not too bad!

4. Forced Blossoms:

Newly cut branches of forsythia and quince.

Folks also display flowers, fruits, and plants at Chinese New Year because they are a symbol of nature’s reawakening in the spring. They decorate their homes with heaping platters of tangerines and oranges, and vases filled with beautiful spring flowers. 

It’s easy to encourage branches of flowering trees to bloom early. If you plan it carefully, the first blossoms may open on Chinese New Year’s Day, which foretells a year of prosperity for you!

1. Go outside today to look for branches of peach, plum, forsythia, quince, apple, or lilac. Look for branches with many round, fat flower buds (these look different than the longer, thinner leaf buds).

2. Cut the branches and bring them inside. Pound the ends of the branches a bit with a hammer, and put them into a vase filled with lukewarm water.

3. The next day, change the water for cooler water. Put the branches in a cool room, and wait for the buds to open. It will take one to three weeks.

5. Make Jiao-zi dumplings: 
These delicious dumplings are prepared ahead of time and frozen, to be to served to guests on New Year’s Day. They symbolize "endless treasure" because they are crescent-shaped like a kind of ancient Chinese money. When you boil them, try not to break them, or you will see your treasure floating away!

Ingredients:

• half a head of Chinese cabbage
• 6 brown mushrooms
• 1 green onion
• 1 tsp. fresh ginger root
• 1 clove of garlic
• 1-Tbsp. sesame oil
• 1/2 Tbsp. soy sauce 
• 1/2 Tbsp. cornstarch
• round dumpling wrappers
• soy sauce and rice vinegar for dipping sauce

1. Mince the Chinese cabbage, mushrooms, green onion, ginger root, and garlic. 

2. Combine the vegetables with the sesame oil, soy sauce, and cornstarch. Stir fry to cook until soft.

3. Place a bit of filling in the center of a round dumpling wrapper and fold over into a half-moon. Pinch and pleat the edges together with wet fingers. (Freeze now or cook.)

4. Add oil to a heavy frying pan and heat on medium high. When the pan is hot, stand some of the dumplings upright in the pan, not touching, and add a cup of water. Cover and cook for several minutes.

5. Scoop the dumplings out of the pan and cook the next batch. Serve hot with dipping sauce made of equal parts soy sauce and rice vinegar.

6. Kitchen God Good-bye Ceremony: 

Each Chinese New Year I put up a new portrait of the kitchen god and his wife, and they hang all year in my kitchen. 

Tsao-wang and Wang Bo-jia watch the daily life of the household and keep a written record of everything that goes on - whether the family is tidy or messy, honest or sneaky, thrifty or wasteful. It’s a little like having Santa watching all year, to see if you’ve been good or bad!

These god images are a visual reminder to me to have integrity in my home life. 

Today I will send them off to heaven to make their report, which requires a special ceremony to honor the two. 

Thoughts about this: I practice this ceremony with kids so that they will have a visceral understanding of another culture. I make it clear that it's symbolic: We are setting the intention to be the best persons we can be in this new year.
  

My ceremony:

1. I light candles and incense near the Kitchen God’s picture. 

2. I picture in my head all the good things that have happened in our kitchen over the year - all the family dinners, tea with friends (not so much lately), toddler art, and mindful meals I have prepared.

3. If I'm celebrating with kids, we offer the gods fresh fruits and sticky cakes, and put honey on their lips. (This is to give them sweet thoughts so they will say more about our good deeds and less about our bad deeds!)

Kitchen God on his way to heaven.

4. I then take down the picture, make a fire outside, and burn it. The gods fly skyward with the smoke, and I say a silent prayer of thanks for the compassionate spirit of love acting in my life. 

After Little New Year, we leave the niche empty for seven days. During this week, the family feels free to be self-indulgent in the kitchen. We can cook many sweets and deep-fried goodies, because the Kitchen God isn’t watching!