Welcome to the Year of the Rabbit 2023
by Kenneth Lyen
Not having celebrated Chinese New Year for the past three years because of the Covid pandemic, this year is our chance to emerge from all the restrictions and lockdowns. Timid like the rabbit, we hesitantly unlock the main door. To our surprise the door is suddenly flung wide open and everybody dashes out with shrieks of ecstasy and jubilation to welcome the Year of the Rabbit.
Out of the twelve animals participating in the zodiac race, the Rabbit came fourth. Nowadays sportspersons would be disappointed if they were not among the top three. The twelve animals listed in the order of finishing the Jade Emperor’s race were: Rat, Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Goat, Monkey, Rooster, Dog, and Pig. Apparently a cat was supposed to have joined the race but got left out. We are not clear whether the cat overslept because the rat forgot to wake him up, or whether the rat knowingly did not prompt the Jade Emperor that the cat’s name was omitted from the race-cum-banquet guest list. Anyway the cat has never forgiven the rat. But in Vietnam, they must have felt sorry for the cat, and they replaced the rabbit (not the rat) with a cat. In some parts of northern Thailand, the pig was replaced by an elephant.
The zodiac is said to have originated during the Han dynasty (201 BC – 220 AD) two thousand years ago, and continues to be followed by China, Korea, Vietnam and Singapore. These countries celebrate the new year on 22 January 2023. However, Thailand celebrates the new year in mid April, while Japan embraced the Western solar calendar in 1873 and celebrates their new year on the first of January.
We think of rabbits as being soft, gentle and weak creatures. However, according to the Chinese zodiac astrologers, the polite easygoing facade hides the underlying pride, arrogance, and bureaucratic tendency. But in general, people born in the year of the Rabbit tend to be sociable, kind-hearted, thoughtful and imaginative.
The professions that people born in the year of the Rabbit are more suitable for, say the astrologers, include creative jobs, such as architecture, music, literature and art. They are also good in occupations where socialising is important, such as public relations, business consultation, and social services.
Astrologers predict that Rabbit people will face challenges in 2023 and are at higher risk of financial losses (who isn’t?) and they advise them to be careful in their spending. They also predict that both their physical and mental health will be under stress, and they recommend adding yoga, QiGong and meditation to current physical exercises (one wonders if astrologers are being paid for such nebulous advice?)
Red packets remain the main tradition of giving by the older to the younger generation. However, some of us are starting to apply the internet banking platform for giving virtual red packets by transferring money using PayNow, PayLah, Pay Anyone, Pay Scam (Haha!). What is Chinese New Year for the young, without the physical red packet? The argument for abandoning red packets is that each year several tons are thrown away and not recycled, adding to our environmental waste. However, baby boomers may feel that the old-fashioned practice of giving physical red packets containing new bank notes is a beloved tradition of Chinese New Year and should not surrender to the modern technology of electronic transfers. Over the past few decades, the amount of money inside the red packets has followed economic inflation. In the old days the packet contained $2. Nowadays most packets contain 5 to 10 times that amount. The saving grace is that there is no Goods and Services Tax (GST), at least not yet.
Chinese New Year is a time for eating indulgence. The excuse is that we want to be generous to our friends and relatives, so we present them with food. The problem is that they feel obliged to return the favour, and our shelves and refrigerators become crammed with so much food (and philosophically we feel it wasteful to throw them away), that we “dispose” of them into our stomachs. Then we cook up another excuse why we aren’t exercising more to burn off these excess calories... “we only live it up once a year, and we promise to exercise more next week or perhaps next month or whenever”.
We abide by certain traditions. Singaporeans claim that the “lo hei” or “yusheng” practice, where slices of raw fish are tossed up with shredded carrots, radish, crushed peanuts and golden crackers, was invented by four Singaporean chefs in 1964. It is now very popular, and is part of the culture of Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, and Hong Kong. There is even a Japanese sushi version of the lo hei.
Socially, Chinese New Year is a wonderful time for reunions. Family members from distant places will come back for reunion dinners. Companies, clubs, schoolmates, and other organisations hold annual dinners around this period to celebrate. Go ahead and enjoy, enjoy!
For the first time in three years, Chinatown has started lighting up again. Shops are entertaining more visitors, travel agencies and hotels are welcoming more tourists, the arts and theatres are charging up, and there is a feeling of optimism in the air.
We hope the Rabbit will lead us along the road towards world peace, where women are given the freedom and education they rightly deserve, that nobody is discriminated for their skin colour, religion or lifestyle, that global warming will be under control, and that the economy of all countries will balance the rich and poor so as to eradicate hunger and poverty. We live in hope.
We wish everyone a Happy, Healthy and Successful Year of the Rabbit! Gong Xi Fa Cai!
Kenneth Lyen
16 January 2023
