Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-05-10
Chinese New Year Rites
RecOunted by Minister

To the Editor OF The Star:
We, in Shanghai, recently passed
| through the big feast-Chinese New
Year. Every ones birthday comes on
| this day. Should child be born in
| even the last hour of the last day of
| the old year it would be years old on
| New Years. New Year came on Sunday,
| February 10. Every store was closed. All
work stopped. But it was not quiet!
| 1t was like many Fourth of JulyS in
one. At midnight / was wakened by q
vast broadside of large and small fire
crackers, and they kept it up for days.
In the morning the ground was covered
as by red snoW-the confetti" Of ex-
ploding fireworks. Firecrackers are but
| a part of the feast-the noisy part.
The last day of the year everybody
| Is busy-the men at closing up their
accounts. All bills must be collected
and all debts paid. Woe to the man
who does not pay up his debts! The
women are very busy. The house must
| be made as clean as a pin and deco
rated, and the brooms hidden-bad
luck if they appear on New Year. Be
| fore the New Year sun rises all kinds of
food must be gotten ready Guests
many-will come during those days and
| they must be feasted. Few people see
slumber the last night of the old year
But when the sun rises, calm reigns
over the household. AS one walks out
between and am. the whole town
is asleep. Sunday, indeed But excite
ment arouses them and about 10 o'clock
you'll find the streets alive with people
| dressed in their best bib and tucker
and your hear Kong Hyi Fah-dzai! p
| CONGRATULATIONS and Astounding wealth
! to you''-shouted from one to another.
The closed doors are plastered with ap-.
propriate sayings written on blood-red
strips Of paper. Go to open spaces OF
the city and see crowds encircling pup
pet shows, acrobats, monkey perform
ers, suuirming dragons, entertainers OF
all kinds and peddlers of sweets and
| children's toys-Vanity Fair! Go to the
| temples and you find thousands burn
| ing incense and candles before all the
idols, praying for wealth, old age and
bliss.
One interesting god connected with
| the New Year is the god OF wealth,
| which is worshiped especially on the
| 5th-his birthday. The money spent on
firecrackers in his honor would pay
China's national debt Few begin work
| again until he is properly worshiped.
Another is the kitchen god. He Is a
paper god and sits over the stove In
| the kitchen, where he spies on the do
ingS of the family for a year. On the
23d of the twelfth month he is given
| a big feast. Sweet sirup is put on his
mouth and he is put in a beautiful pa
per sedan chair and burned in glorious
style, accompanied by flreworkS-which
is sending him to the upper god to re-
| port on their years doings; all this fuss
and sweetness is to bride him to speak
we'll of their family to his majesty.
When he returns on the last night OF
| the old year a new idol is bought and
placed with little ceremony-in the old
! niche. 1t will be year before he re-
ports again-why "taffy" him now?
Next to idol worship, gambling takes
| a big place in New Year celebration
gambling everywhere! What they eat
and drink, and the firecrackers, and
gambling, all, in some way or other,
Symbolic or point to the sound "Kao-
lsen!"-EXcelsior! in the sense of rising
high in wealth and Enthusiastically
In wealth. It's, indeed, wonderfully
interesting time, and is INDUCED in even
by beggars-for they receive harvest
of aims
The Nationalist government ordered
that Chinese New Year should not be
observed this year 1t might as well
have tried to turn back the great tidal
wave of history!
REV. H. G. c. HALLoCK.