Karma of LUCK: Chinese New Year

Chinese dance tidbits: The dragon serpent dances of China (Fordney Foundation)

Gong xi fa cai and Xin nian kuai le are both good say. - Really? Now I can speak Chinese!

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If the dragon is happy, we're all happy.

Chinese New Year, perhaps the most widely celebrated holiday in the world, typically takes place in January or February, after the Gregorian New Year on January 1st.

Whether spending it in Chinatown or in China, knowing how to wish people a happy new year in the local tongue is a nice touch. Feliz ano nuevo is the way it is said in Los Angeles, where Latin Americans surround Chinatown in all directions.

Come the big day, families and friends will be feasting, partaking in centuries-old superstitions, and spending time together to celebrate the Chinese Lunar New Year (the Spring Festival).

Orange County Supervisor Nguyen blasts Do

With vibrant celebrations taking place from Sydney to San Francisco, there are plenty of opportunities to pay respects and well wishes to the Chinese, especially with customary greetings.

• Ex-Supervisor Andrew Do left no money for Orange County's Vietnamese Tet Festival this year (OC Register)

About Chinese New Year

Asian look is in: Chinese. Japanese, Singaporean

Chinese New Year is a massive, international celebration. With people scattered around the planet observing the Lunar New Year, there are sure to be fireworks, parades, and street fairs in nearly every major city.

Although the first few days are the most observed, Chinese New Year actually runs for 15 consecutive days and ends with the Lantern Festival. Preparations take place for weeks in advance to ensure that this period is filled with luck and prosperity (two things the Chinese value immensely).

The karma of luck

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  Hello, venerable sir, I'm a lucky dragon.

  What is the cause of "luck," Buddha? - It is karma as the great arbitrator and distributor of what is wished for, welcome, and experienced as pleasant. - But which karma (deeds, intentional actions)? - Keeping the Five Precepts and engaging in the Ten Courses of Wholesome Conduct. - And what is the cause of doing these skillful actions? - It is confidence (faith, saddha) or right view or direct knowledge of things. (We may not have right view, but we can go for guidance (not refuge like everyone mistranslates it) to Three Resources that do: the Buddha, the Dhamma, and the (Noble) Sangha. - Is there more to being lucky? - Giving (dana), sharing, letting go, benefitting others, these things do a person great good. - How much good, Buddha? - If beings knew, as I know, the power of giving, they would not eat a meal without first sharing if there were anyone with whom to share it. Such is the power of giving and benefitting others.

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  Start with just these three things.

  I said to the monks at the Sri Lankan Buddhist temple, "I need good karma. What is the best way of making skillful karma?" They acted like they had never heard this question before but finally answered with two slogans, dana, sila, bhavana ("generosity, virtue, meditation") for laypeople and sila, samadhi, panna ("virtue, stillness, and wisdom") for more serious and intensive practitioners willing to do it. Notice that both share sila or virtue in common as a vital ingredient.

This is a time for family and lots of food. Firecrackers are thrown in abundance to frighten away unlucky spirits, and red is worn, even red underwear, because of its symbolic meaning.

Children receive small gifts and money in red envelopes called lai see, and various historical figures are honored.

• "Chinese" is not really a language because there is official Mandarin and the older Cantonese, which is closer to Japanese than it is to Chinese, our Chinese professor astounded us by revealing. Could it be true? If someone is speaking Cantonese or Japanese, they will soon get a sense of what the other is saying, but the Mandarin speaker remains in the dark.

"Happy New Year" in Mandarin

Prosperity breeds prosperity, so get lucky.

Unlike Western New Year's Eve celebrations, which tend to be about short-lived resolutions [ending tend days in on QUITTERS DAY] to improve ourselves, the primary goal of Chinese New Year traditions is to usher in good luck and prosperity in the new year.

With such vast variations in Chinese culture and ethnic groups around the world, there are many ways to say "happy new year" in Chinese. Most of them are rooted in luck and financial success.

• Gong xi fa cai is pronounced "gong zee fah tsai," where gong xi means "congratulations" and is also a way to wish one joy. Fa cai is "to become rich or make money." In essence, one is wishing one joy and prosperity to another for the new year. Business owners and workmates use gong xi fa cai as the usual way to say "happy new year" in Chinese.
• Xin nian kuai le is pronounced "sheen neean kwai luh," kuai le means "happy" or "joyous," and xin nian means "new year." Xin nian kuai le is a great way to say happy new year in Chinese to friends without referencing money.

"Happy New Year" in Cantonese

Are good and bad luck mere superstitions?

Cantonese is the language primarily spoken by the people of [business-minded, former imperial British colony] Hong Kong.

• The Cantonese "happy new year" greeting differs slightly from the Mandarin version, even though both are actually written the same way.
• Gong hey fat choy is the Cantonese pronunciation of Mandarin's gong xi fa cai, simply meaning "congratulations and prosperity."

• Greg Rodgers, thoughtco.com, How to Say Happy New Year in Chinese; CC Liu, Pat Macpherson (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly