Celebrating Lunar New Year

If I asked you to close your eyes and imagine what it would be like to celebrate your birthday, Christmas, the Fourth of July, and Thanksgiving all in one holiday, then what you have in your mind would be very similar Lunar New Year which is called “Tết”.  Tết is a joyous and culturally significant celebration marked by extensive preparations, family reunions, traditional rituals, and festive activities. Everyone begins preparing weeks in advance and the streets begin to be lined with peach blossoms or orange trees and lots of other flowers.  There are lanterns and decorations put up everywhere and our whole city bustles around in preparation. The week of the Tết holiday, everyone travels back to their hometowns to be with their family, and the usually crowded and loud streets become empty and most places close up shop until the owners return from their hometown in the following days and weeks. 

It is a very family-focused holiday with lots of traditions and rituals. Even though our city empties, the people that do stay enjoy themselves since the first day or two of the holiday the city comes alive with vibrant decorations, bustling markets selling Tết goods, traditional music and dance performances, and colorful parades featuring lion and dragon dances. Families gather for festive meals, exchange gifts, and visit temples to pray for good fortune, while public spaces host community events. Families have a variety of rituals that they will perform to their ancestors to bring prosperity and luck to their coming year. There is a variety of superstitions that go along specifically with this holiday.  

There is much joy to this holiday for us and our local partners. However, there is also a lot of opportunity for our ministry. While many people disperse, a lot of our newest members struggle with what it looks like to go home to a family that may or may not know they are believers now and that still expect them to perform a lot of the rituals of ancestor worship. For a couple of years now we have held a Question and Answer time along with local leadership to give a space for our members to share, process, and ask what it should and might look like for each of them to go back to their families and the rituals that come with the holiday. This can be a joyful time for them to see people they love but also lonely as they feel separated from their family because of their new faith. We try to support and give space for wisdom through this Question and Answer time. We also try to do small things. For example, my wife and one of our friends have started a few small traditions of their own that they do together, like visiting the street that sells Tết decorations and having a small day of celebration and time together.  

It is our hope that we do not remove the people that we work with from their own culture, but that we walk alongside them as they discern what it looks like to follow Jesus and stay true to scripture in their world.