chinese new year

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angell1

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is it ok for cahotlic to celebrate?

it is mostly cultural but the origins were religious and thre are some buddhists and other who take it seriously. but with communist china, mostly everyone just does it for fun.

here’s some moreinformation if you want it.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_New_Year

also the other thing, the chinese culture is quite superstitious. we don’t do all the things in the articles by the way.

my mom is chinese which is why i’m asking. i just odn’t know how to feel about it. we’ve been doing it for years and i didn’t relaly think much of it but as my faith deppens, i’m afraid it might be wrong
 
Honestly, our western calendar is based on Roman paganism. BC and AD aren’t, but many of our months are. I wouldn’t worry about it too much.
 
Within the Vietnamese community the lunar new year is a big thing, perhaps even a bigger deal in the Catholic community in some instances. There are some rituals that the Buddhist do for the sake of ancestor worship but from my understanding we Catholics use this day more as a second All Souls’ Day to pray for and thank the dead for all they have done in this life and their continued prayer in the next. We also use this as an opportunity to celebrate the family unit as younger folks thank the older generation still here for all their sacrifices and many families attend mass together to thank God for the year and pray for continued blessings. Dragons and lion dances aside, the Catholic Church in Vietnam seems to have no trouble with the tenets of the holiday so as long as superstition or straight up ancestor worship doesn’t occur. Catholics have been celebrating this for centuries in Vietnam and the church in many cases is the epicenter of the celebration. I hope this helps!
 
Well I am Chinese and I celebrate Chinese New Year. I live in Singapore and for a Catholic it is in no way superstitious. For one, I go for Mass in the morning. We receive and give oranges to the priest and also pass him a little red packet with some cash in it. If you attend Mass in Ordinary Form, the priest also blesses the oranges before giving them out.

But I guess the tricky part is with paying respects to ancestors. My grandparents were Buddhists before they passed on. But so long as you aren’t participating in any rituals while paying respects it is perfectly ok. I do this every year and go to the temple where their remains are and just offer a stick of incense. Nothing wrong with that. Even the bishop of my diocese says its perfectly fine to do that. I love my grandparents but does that mean I can’t pay respects to them just because they aren’t Catholic???

Things like reading the zodiac. Its just like the horoscope.Its just trivia and don’t read anything more into it other than knowing which animal it is this year.

Most of the things associated with Chinese New Year seem to be emphasised with prosperity and monetary rewards. But if you’ve attended Mass on Chinese New Year, it is something the priest will always draw focus away from, and ask you to pray instead for blessings from God.
 
couldn’t it then be argued that indian cahotlics can celebrate dawali and middle eastern catholics can celebrate ramadan? just alter it a bit?
 
It’s a cultural thing; how is it any different than celebrating our secular New Year? If all you’re going to do is worry about it that pretty well defeats the purpose of a celebration and you might as well not even bother with it.
 
The Vietnamese community in my parish celebrate Chinese New Year in the parish facilities, with the blessing of our bishop, so I’d think it is acceptable. Neither the Chinese New Year nor the Roman New Year are Catholic customs, and they’re equally fine.
 
angell1 said:
couldn’t it then be argued that indian cahotlics can celebrate dawali and middle eastern catholics can celebrate ramadan? just alter it a bit?
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Joie_de_Vivre said:
Diwali yes, Ramadan, no.
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Diwali and Ramadan have religious significance for Hindus and Muslims respectively. Neither should be celebrated by Christians, even those from those cultures.
ServusHumilis said:
It’s a cultural thing; how is it any different than celebrating our secular New Year? If all you’re going to do is worry about it that pretty well defeats the purpose of a celebration and you might as well not even bother with it.
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Celebrating New Year is something different, and while religions may use the new year as a time to reflect back on the past year and hope for a good year ahead, so do the non-religious, whenever new year in their country may fall.
 
VivienneJ said:
Diwali and Ramadan have religious significance for Hindus and Muslims respectively. Neither should be celebrated by Christians, even those from those cultures.

Celebrating New Year is something different, and while religions may use the new year as a time to reflect back on the past year and hope for a good year ahead, so do the non-religious, whenever new year in their country may fall.
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Diwali has a massive amount of cultural importance even if you remove the religious aspects.
 
We’re chinese and we do all the traditional stuff EXCEPT the ancestral worship stuff. It is a great time of year, we have several family get togethers, great dinners and lunches… its like having Christmas twice a year. I even get together with my former co-workers even though I;ve been retired for years… enjoy and Happy NEW Year !!
 
wcknight said:
We’re chinese and we do all the traditional stuff EXCEPT the ancestral worship stuff. It is a great time of year, we have several family get togethers, great dinners and lunches… its like having Christmas twice a year. I even get together with my former co-workers even though I;ve been retired for years… enjoy and Happy NEW Year !!
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Instead of ancestral worship you could easily substitute in prayers for the souls of deceased family members.
 
I was brought up in India. I celebrated the festive side of Hindu festivals and Muslim festivals with my Hindu and Muslim friends. I went over and ate with them but I never entered into any prayer events with them because that would be praying to false gods. They came over during Christmas to eat my cake and cookies.

In India, Christmas is celebrated by the Christians in their homes having meals with friends and family. The bars and restaurants are packed with Hindus and Muslims all wanting to celebrate Christmas. They are not interested in the birth of Christ just the festive side of Christmas.
 
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