Hokkiens celebrate Jade Emperor’s (Tian Gong) birthday
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Hokkiens celebrate Jade Emperor’s birthday and lunar new year
HOKKIENS thronged the morning markets in Klang over the weekend to buy sugar canes to prepare for the celebration of the Jade Emperor’s birthday (Thian-nee Kong Seh). The celebration begins tonight after 11pm and continues into the early hours of tomorrow, the ninth day of the lunar new year.
One of the most important celebrations in Chinese culture, the Jade Emperor’s birthday is touted as grander than the first day of the Chinese New Year as it is like a thanksgiving celebration. More-over, it also marks the New Year for the Hokkien community.
Klang Hokkien Association Culture Committee chief Shi Lee Meng, 60, said sugar canes were an integral part of the thanksgiving prayers and seeking blessings for the year ahead.
Massive structure: Lee shopping around for the elaborately crafted Heavenly Houses for the Jade Emperor’s birthday.“Sugar cane (kam chia) in the Hokkien dialect sounds like thank you (kam siah) and it is auspicious. A pair of sugar cane is a must when celebratingThian-nee Kong Seh. It will be propped up or leaned against the gate of the main entrance to the house. The sugar cane leaves are burnt along with the yellow paper (kim jua) which is burnt with the paper replica of Thian-nee Kong’s heavenly house,” he added.
According to ancient folklore, people of the Hokkien province in China were under bondage to demonic forces and didn’t have the opportunity to celebrate new year for a long time until one year, on the eighth day of the lunar new year, when the Jade Emperor of Heaven came at midnight and liberated them.
During the cosmic battle between the Jade Emperor and the demonic forces, the Hokkien people hid in the sugar cane plantations.
Following the victory over the demons and their liberation, the Hokkien people came out to celebrate the new year for the first time, thus the thanksgiving.
Shi said the people wanted to give thanks to the Jade Emperor and also honour him on his birthday on the ninth day of the lunar new year but didn’t have anything to worship with.
“Sugar canes were used as their offering to the Jade Emperor. From that first worship ceremony, they continued with the tradition of using sugar canes to thank the Jade Emperor on the eighth night of the lunar new year,” he added.
Syarikat Perniagaan Soon Poh Sdn Bhd based in Klang, which sells prayer paraphernalia, said business was brisk.
Trader Lim Hoot Kong, 57, said some people had even requested for specially crafted “houses” that were 3m high. Owen Lee, 28, a Subang Jaya resident, said he chose to come to Klang to get the cardboard houses as it was much cheaper compared with the prices in Kuala Lumpur.
“In Kuala Lumpur, an average size replica of the house costs RM500 but in Klang it is sold at RM308 only,” he said.
Lim said apart from the heavenly house, he sells ngor siew th’ng (pink pagoda-shaped candies) as offerings to the deities.
“Despite changes, younger people still follow this tradition as a majority have a noticed a steady growth in business and improvement in things for the particular year when offerings are made to Thian-nee Kong,” he said.
http://thestar.com.my/metro/story.asp?file=/2012/1/30/central/10562152&sec=central
A life as hard but as sweet as sugarcane
TODAY is one of the most important days of the 15-day Chinese New Year celebration for the Hokkien community. The eighth day of the first lunar month is celebrated just as grandly as the eve of the first day.
Some people call it the Hokkien New Year.
At the stroke of midnight, the ceremony begins -- today it is marked by blasts of firecrackers although this had never been a mandatory feature.
The Hokkien give thanks to the Jade Emperor or "Thnee Kong" for the blessings of the past year and ask for a smooth year.
It is said that if the children were to stay up and offer prayers to the Jade Emperor, the parents would be blessed with a long and healthy life. This belief, I think, is deeply rooted in the practice of filial piety.
The sugarcane is high on the list of items sought by the Hokkien on this day.
A pair of freshly harvested plants, complete with stalk, roots and leaves, can fetch many times its regular price, and this is the time the sugarcane planters make a killing. If you are wondering where the term "sweet harvest" came from, wonder no more.
According to popular folklore, a cruel king once ruled the Hokkien in ancient China. The tyrant ordered an ethnic cleansing, but the Hokkien got wind of it and sought refuge in the sugarcane fields, from which they emerged on the eighth day, unharmed by the departed army.
I was, however, told a different tale by my elders when I asked about the significance of the sugarcane when I was a kid.
Their story is more realistic, I think.
Sugarcane plants symbolise life and the resilient spirit in every one of us, they told me.
You will detect some truth in this if you observe the sugarcane plant closely. The plant may look slender but its roots are strong. The stem is tough but flexible enough to bend with and not be easily broken by the wind.
If you have ever chewed on the sugarcane, you will recall that you had to strip the bark with your teeth before you could take a bite of the crunchy stem. You also had to work your way through one tough node after another in order to savour the sweet juices.
All of these reflect the cycles of life and the hardship and ease, my elders said.
One will appreciate life's sweet rewards if we have tasted the hardship.
Of course, you can argue that these days, you do not have to work up a sweat to satisfy a sugarcane juice craving. Mechanical crushers and juicers have taken the load off your jaws.
But you don't need me to tell you that things gained without any work are likely to be lost just as effortlessly.
"Easy come, easy go" can be a hard lesson to learn -- and all too often, learnt too late.
http://www.nst.com.my/streets/central/a-life-as-hard-but-as-sweet-as-sugarcane-1.39021
I wish all Hokkiens a Happy New Year. Huat All the way this year!