Happy Lunar New Year
(The Postal Service - The District Sleeps Alone Tonight

We were lovers, we were kissers, we were holders of hands, we were make believers.
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Happy Lunar New Year to everyone. The great thing about the starting of a new year is that we can start fresh if we’ve had a less than stellar previous year. It’s that sense of rebirth. That’s not to say, the previous year has been less than what I expected. In fact, the previous year has been the happiest I’ve been as far back as I can remember. Thanks to all the important people that had something to do with that. Here’s to another year, brighter than any we’ve seen in the past.
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In the Buddhist tradition, on New Years Eve we all head down to the temple to pay our respects to Buddha and to get a tangerine/clementine from the lucky tree. The tree is usually a fake cherry blossom tree where they hang these clementines that have fortunes attached to them. These clementines are suppose to bring you luck for the entire year. Seeing as Asians are highly superstitious, this is probably the busiest time of year at the temples.

Last night my family and I drove to the temple to propagate this stereotype. It was quite the sight. The temple was decorated with bright lights and lanterns. Cars were double-parked, parked in handicapped spots, parked on curbs, parked in front of fire hydrants, all the way down the street. We walked up the stairs and placed our shoes outside (no shoes allowed in the temple). We paid our respect to Buddha with a few bows and some lit incense. Some people bowed on their knees, while others bowed standing up. It was all very orderly and civil. At least until the monks finished their ceremonies.

All hell broke loose as people pushed and shoved to get to the lucky clementine trees. At one point, my middle sister threatened to drop kick some girl because she was being a little bit pushy. When we finally got to the tree, all the clementines had been picked and the tree was empty. Usually when this happens the temple volunteers usually replenish the trees with fresh clementines. All we had to do was wait. Remember how I said Asian people were superstitious? They’re also impatient. People started breaking branches from the trees in hopes of taking home some luck. My mom was not impressed. If that were one of us breaking the tree branch, she would’ve used that branch to beat us to death.

After a little while, one of the volunteers finally made their way to the tree to replenish it with more fruit and I grabbed my clementine and left before I could get trampled to death.
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At one point during the ceremonies I spotted this white guy in a kung-fu outfit in a crowd across the room. He must have thought it was a Shaolin temple and came to challenge one of the monks. Thoughts of Pei-Mei ripping Elle Driver’s eyes out in Kill Bill 2 danced through my head but that never happened. The guy actually seemed quite content with the ceremonies and getting his lucky tangerine. It’s always nice to see people opening their eyes to different cultures.
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Enjoy the year everyone.