Chinese New Year
Khmer New Year
"Traditionally, the festival was a time to honor deities as well as ancestors." (Wikipedia)
Here's a link if you'd like to know more about the holiday, and it's easy to read! Chinese New Year
I haven't asked anybody here, what Chinese New Year means to them, but here are some of my observations:
- Fire: Every family creates a fire pit outside in front of their house where they burn fake money and some other paper things. I saw this last year with my landlord and this year as I drove down the main road.
- Food: They cook food (I think Chinese noodles & chicken...) and buy fruit (bananas, apples, oranges, and grapes ...) and Chinese bread, and of course they have rice, then they offer them to the spirits / their ancestors. Afterwards, they eat the food. Below are some pictures.
- Offering: Sometimes they even buy paper houses and cars ... I'm not sure if they burn them, or what they do
- Daily happenings: Every time I asked my students what they'd do for Chinese New Year, the answer included playing cards. Many of them also went to their home towns. Driving down the streets, most of the shops were closed, but in front of many houses I could see the family gathered around playing cards (from what I hear, they play for money).
- Performances: Both last year and this year, I saw the traditional performance of men under a dragon costume, dancing. This takes place on the main roads, in front of large businesses. Usually, people will stop along the side of the road to watch, or be rubber-neckers and watch as they drive by.
What did I do? I didn't have any plans, but Thursday morning after I finished studying with our sister, Night, she invited me to go eat lunch with her family. (The food her family had offered to the spirits) I'm thankful that the Bible speaks on this topic: "Now concerning things sacrificed to idols ... But food will not commend us to God; we are neither the worse if we do not eat, nor the better if we do eat." (See 1 Corinthians 8)
On the way there, I prayed that God would blind me to any food that I would be hesitant to eat and that I wouldn't be a hindrance to her family knowing Him, but that He would work in their hearts (even through this short amount of time), so that they would come to know Him.
I got to eat with Night, her mom, her sister, and her sister's husband. Her brother-in-law is an extrovert and has pretty good English, so he talked to me a lot. Her sister is a little more like me and her English isn't much better than my Khmer, but after some help, we talked too! We laughed and ate until I was ready to pop, and then I was given more food to try!
Please PRAY for Night's family to seek truth, love, hope ... which can only be found through dying to self and giving their lives to Christ. Night's sister talked about wanting to come study English with me. She was excited that it was FREE! I asked Night if she thought her sister would really come on Monday, and she said "50%". Her sister is 28 (a little older than the other students) and a little lower English level, but please pray for God to move as He desires!
Also pray for our other brothers and sisters here to have wisdom (know when to speak up and when to be silent), that they'd be salt and light in their families, and that God would change the hearts of their family members (and friends).
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