Because I Want to Know

Yesterday was Matsu's birthday, I was told today after asking my Chinese colleagues about the craziness around our neighborhood.


Eight Generals 6, originally uploaded by Boyznberry.

(Click on this photo to see more photos from Matsu's birthday parade.)

Rather than rely on bits and pieces of information I had heard before from Christian colleagues from before, I've decided to ask my Buddhist and Taoist colleagues whenever I have questions. Not that I might always get an accurate answer, I know. Even if you'd ask a handful of Christians about certain practices or beliefs, you might get contradicting answers.

Hence, I ask questions, and I refer to this book I bought called, Private Prayers and Public Parades: Exploring the Religious Life of Taipei, which has been very insightful, to say the least.

I ask, because I want to understand.

And I ask because, in the last three years, I've learned to ask far more questions and listening more.

Not that I don't desperately want to engage in further conversation with some of these friends! Out of respect for the people, and out of a desire to know first what they believe, I will listen.

And so yesterday, I was sitting in an office at school, working on a project for one of the departments. A dozen or so Chinese colleagues sat down for lunch at the table where I was working. During a lull in their conversation, I politely said, "Xing wen..."

In other words, "May I ask..."

And were they keen to tell me all about the day.

"It's Matsu's birthday," the seemingly-most-knowlegable and possibly-most-devout among them explained. She explained that the parade was to honor Matsu, and to pray for the neighborhood.

The ladies continued to talk among themselves about some of the recent events in Taiwan regarding honoring gods. I listened on, trying hard not to let my face show how utterly bizarre I think the practices are. For example, due to the H1N1 epidemic, worshipers at one temple in Taiwan dressed their gods with face masks.

"So, if you don't want H1N1, do you go to pray at that temple?" I asked.

The explained that that was not the case. "We are just protecting our god," one colleague explained proudly.

My eyes must've given away that I thought it's pretty sad when humans have to protect their gods against viruses. "Actually," she said, "our gods protect us, so we also show them respect by protecting them. It's the same as when we take them food."

"So who exactly is Matsu," I asked another colleague later in the afternoon, when the crowd had left and she came to sit down for lunch. I had been told earlier that she was one of the most knowledgable persons about Taoism.

My colleague proceeded to tell me about Lin Mo, a girl who lived long, long ago in China. She was a very good girl, and she didn't get married. One day, her father, a fisherman, drowned, and she tried to help him. "After that, the god said she should be a god."

"Which god?" I asked inquisitively.

"A fortune teller."

"So when did she change from Lin Mo to Matsu?"

"When she became a god. Later, her sisters also became gods. Everyone can pray to them, but fishermen really pray to Matsu and her sisters. In fact, it is said that when the waters are rough and your boat is in danger of capsizing, if you see the ghost of Matsu, you have peace that everything will be fine."

Interesting.

Matsu herself wasn't carried down our streets yesterday, though. Those were other gods, smaller gods. All came out to celebrate Matsu's birthday, because she is considered the queen of heaven.

Noted.


From my book on Taiwan's religious practices, I also learned that Lin Mo was born around 960. Either way, she died at age 28. The book explains that the incident of saving her father (or it could've been her brothers) didn't really occur, but that it happened during a dream or a trance. Her ghost is said to have saved a high-ranking official in 1122, and hence she was promoted to Queen of Heaven. However, this promotion may have been a political move during the Yuan dynasty to win the allegiance of the coastal peoples. Within the temples that have her statue, she is usually flanked by two demons called "Ears that Hear the Wind" and "Thousand-Mile Eyes," both who were hapless suitors...

What I do not understand yet is how the people here have such a fascination with a religion that has openly-evil components.

Matsu's suitors, for example, are flat-out called demons. And they're in the temples.

And when you look at the photos, the "Eight Generals" in particular are downright scary! As are many of the other rituals which I'm sure I'll get to share about as time goes by.

Last month in China, I gained some invaluable insights on why/when the Chinese switched from a nation called "God's country" to referring to themselves as "Descendants of the Dragon." I'll share more upon completion of my China paper, but for now, the connection with the events surrounding Matsu's birthday is the following. I'll quote it directly from C.K. Thong's excellent text on Chinese history, Faith of Our Fathers: God in Ancient China (p. 267):

"Satan's tactic, ever since his rebellion, has been to try to get to every human being to do his will instead of God's. He is an adversary of the person and the purposes of God and seeks to usurp God's position. His schemes are wonderfully planned and executed; he does not work haphazardly. His ways are subtle. To deceive mankind, he often appears attractive. His aim, however, is to hold us captive to sin and to destroy us. ... The central characteristic of his modus operandi is fear, not love. He uses counterfeits, such as lust instead of love. While God draws people to Himself with His unfailing love, Satan uses deception coupled with fear to gain control over mankind."

I worship this God who sent His Son Jesus to redeem us from the consequences of sin.

I worship Jesus who came to earth as a human, yet was sinless, performed miracles, died on the cross, and conquered death by raising from the dead.*

I worship him for his love and for the hope I find in him. Not out of fear or superstition of what may happen if I don't please him. Nor because of religious bondage. I worship him out of love, because he loved us first.

My desire is to continue sharing this hope, freedom, love, forgiveness and meaning we can find in Christ with my neighbors.

But for now, I'll listen and learn. So that I'll know what my friends believe when I do engage in conversations with them.

* Interestingly, a "major solar and lunar eclipse" was recorded by Chinese imperial astronomers in A.D. 31, the year of the death of Jesus. They also recorded a strange halo in the sky three days later. Fascinating, isn't it??

It's the Year of the Pig: A brief introduction to Chinese culture

Most Westerners don't realize it, but today is a very significant day for about a third of the world's population: It's the first day of the Lunar New Year. Today ushers in the year of the pig. Some of my good friends in Taiwan sent me the picture above to wish me a happy New Year. You'd notice how they hold their fists together. That's just what you do on this day. It's like we'd shake hands or hug someone.

So what's the deal with the lunar New Year? Apart from the fact that it's the start of the largest annual human migration (with Chinese people traveling around their countries and the world to visit relatives), it's a time of celebration in all Chinese homes.

If you don't like the sound of fire crackers, this is not the time of year you'd want to be in Taiwan! Starting last night, people would shoot off fire crackers for the entire week at all times of day and night. (On a side note: fire crackers were banned in Beijing until this year. The ban was lifted this year, and today, 125 people were treated in that city for injuries sustained because of poor safety measures. One person totally lost his eyes!)

Why all the fireworks? It all has to do with a legendary dragon. The dragon (Nian, pronounced sort-of like knee-yen, but a shorter sound) is feared for the terror and destruction he brings. The good thing is that Nian fears the color red, and he hates loud noise and light. And so everyone wears red, there are red banners everywhere, many families keep lights and candles burning all night on the eve of the New Year, and, of course, shoot firecrackers. The way you thus greet people on New Year's day is by congratulating them that they survived the dragon!

About those red banners: People would put up signs with the words for spring (chuen) and fortune (fu). However, at this time, they'd put the words upside down! That is because the Chinese word for upside down (dao) sounds like the word that also means arrival. So, by putting the characters upside down, you're effectively saying "chuen dao" or "spring has arrived" and "fortune has arrived." (Chinese culture is very much into sounds!)

Last night, on the eve of New Year, families would not only stay up late to keep the dragon away. (In fact, very few people would've gone to bed before midnight as that would bring bad luck.) They gather for major family get togethers, almost like American Thanksgiving. But there's no turkey on the table. Dishes include fish (because the Chinese word, yu, sounds like the Chinese word for left over) and other tasty treats. By the way: You'd never finish eating all the fish during New Year's! That would be bad. There should always be some fish left over, symbolizing that they'd always have enough...

Yesterday would've been the last chance to clean the house for a few days! That is because you would risk sweeping good fortune out the door if you clean house during the first five days of the New Year. But if you HAVE to clean, you have to sweep from the outside in. Another thing that would supposedly bring bad fortune is to say anything bad during the first five days of the New Year. You cannot even admonish your kids. You're not supposed to say anything that would chase away the good fortune for the New Year.

After New Year's Eve dinner and into today, non-Christians (and some nominal Christians who fear they might offend the spirits) visit temples to burn incense to their ancestors. People would've woken up early this morning to welcome the gods of heaven and earth, and to pay respect to ancestor spirits. They would pray for good fortune for this year, although, according to a Taipei fortune teller, the year of the pig isn't going to be a good year. (Perhaps people were praying even harder today than at the start of a year for which good things are predicted!)

Today would've also been a very important day to go and visit friends and relatives to wish them all a happy New Year. (Hence the major migration!) You'd say "Hsin nian kwai le!" That means, "Happy New Year!" Starting on New Years eve and during family times together, people also play a lot of mah-jong, and many play for money.

Everyone wears new clothing, including the idols. (People clean off their idols and dress them up in new clothing.) And of course, most of the clothing would be red. Adults are expected to give every child who comes to visit a red envelope (hungbao) with money in it for good luck and to show they care. The visits thus become quite a profitable event for kids and young, single adults. (In Taiwan, a recent tradition is for people to line up to receive hungbao from the President. These only have a few cents in them, though.)

According to tradition, people aren't supposed to visit the wife's family today as it would bring bad luck! However, tomorrow will be the great migration to visit the wife's relatives and wish them a happy New Year. According to tradition, the father and brothers have to call and invite the daughter/sisters to come home. Hmmm.

The third day of the New Year is a quiet day (unless, of course, you had traveled far to get to your wife's family, which would mean you'd have to travel back home on day 3.) Day 4 is to welcome back the family gods... Altars are set up with elaborate gifts for the spirits, including anything from bowls of rice to beer, and lots and lots of ghost money is burned. This isn't real money, but goldleaf paper that gives off a lot of smoke when burned. It's for your ancestor spirits to use in the heavens.

On the 5th day of the New Year, businesses open with a bang. Lots of firecrackers are set off as businesses open up again. And yes, that means that for the past 5 days, no-one did any business! Even in Taipei, you can usually only find places like 7Eleven open during the New Year. Most businesses close for the entire holiday! Though things wind down a bit, the celebrations are only officially over after Lantern Festival, which starts on the 15th day of the New Year.

As you can see, the Chinese culture is typically very superstitious. One of the biggest challenges in sharing Christ in that culture is to help new believers come to grips with living in a culture where much revolves around worshiping the spirits of their ancestors. How do you go home as a Christian and show respect to your ancestors but not worship them? How do you not offend family by not going to the temple to burn incense to the gods? Many traditional/Buddist families would claim that if a Christian family member will not participate in the worshiping of idols, he/she is bringing bad fortune to the family as a whole. And this presents you with a delimma. But that is a whole other issue.

What I loved most about the 7 lunar New Years that I celebrated in Taiwan was the fact that you'd usually get a good bonus right before the holidays. And that meant that if I planned far enough ahead of time to actually find seats on a plane bound off the island, that friends and I would typically travel during the week of Lunar New Year, thus avoiding sleeping with earplugs for a week, and wandering around a city without people...

Unfortunately, all my photos from Taiwan are back in South Africa, so I cannot upload pictures for you to see. I do hope, though, that through reading this, you were able to get a little bit of a glimpse of an important holiday in the Chinese world.

For more on Chinese New Year, read the Wikipedia article on this topic. Or visit the Taipei City Government's Web site for information.

In case you're wondering what the Chinese words on the picture says, it's "Da ji, da li." The literal translation, says master linguist Angela Wills, is "Big auspicious (favorable circumstances and good luck), big prosperity," or in Christianese, "Have a blessed and prosperous New Year." That's what I love about the Chinese language. Just four little characters to say so much!