And please know one thing before I go on. This post is not meant to be or to sound defensive. I'm not angry with the comments or the people who question our family celebration. I just think that maybe our explanation might help others in my China adoption community when they get questioned too, although our answer certainly does not have to be their answer.
The question underneath my CNY photos last year was deleted by the writer, so I can only paraphrase here, but it asked something to the affect of "Isn't Chinese New Year rooted in Buddhism, Astrology and Lunar Worship?" A further question from the writer who is a pastor, someone I used to work with years ago, through private message was, "How can you celebrate such a holiday and maintain your Christian faith?"
First of all, how I celebrate my daughter's rich heritage is really no one else's business. But this wouldn't be much of a blog post if I stopped there. Besides, that answer is defensive, and I don't want to come across that way. So, I press on.
Simply put, my response to this pastor friend was:
Chinese New Year dates back to far before written history
and the origins and undertones of the holiday
are quite unclear not only to me but to historians as well.
I am not a scholar on the subject,
but I do know it's my daughter's heritage
and as far as it is within me,
I will do my best to celebrate her beautiful culture while pointing her toward God's truth.
You see, I cannot strip my daughter of her culture. As it is, I do a terrible, paltry job as a white mom celebrating my daughter's Chinese heritage. I miss the Autumn Moon Festival every year and I really feel bad about it. Fail. Chinese New Year is one day I try to "get right."
Does our celebration of CNY mean we are worshiping Budda, the moon or the stars or some other entity? No. Absolutely not.
I worship the one and only true God,
the one who gave His Son for my hideous sins.
The One who gives me grace that I completely
do... not... deserve.
That's who I worship.
But that same God gave me this daughter from another land and we do choose to celebrate her culture and her CNY holiday and all its (and here's the key word here...) STORY. I choose to teach about it as a fable, much like we learn about Greek mythology and all those crazy Gods and monsters like Zeus, Poseidon, Athena, the Hydra (my personal favorite), the Cyclops, the Minitaur, etc. My daughter has a right to understand her culture, the beliefs of her ancestors, the customs of her homeland. I want her to be proud of where she came from and I also want her to know the truth about crazy cultural customs from around the globe. So, on Chinese New Year...
I will clean my home, cleaning out the old.
I will hang red lanterns.
I will dress my daughter in a beautiful new qipao.
I will take my family to see a traditional lion dance.
I will make potstickers and noodles.
I will serve tangerines.
I will exchange red envelopes.
I will celebrate my daughter's heritage...
...all the while thanking God for giving me the opportunity to learn and celebrate another culture and to raise one of His precious children from the foreign land of China.
Whether you celebrate it or not, our family would like to wish you and yours...
新年快乐
Xīnnián kuàilè
Happy Chinese New Year!
Welcome, Year of the Goat!
