By C C Pung
Justice of Peace
They say life is made up of fleeting moments.
Here I’m having a photographic one with people in my life with whom having a photograph together never came across the mind.
The Chinese New Year seems like a good time to capture one.
At left is my sister, Siew Len, with her grandchild No. 8 (I think) Crystal (right) and sister Joveline and my son Kim Hao.
We joined about two billion earthlings around the world celebrating goa nian (the overcoming of the fierce mythical beast Nian) which is the CNY, or Spring Festival, the world has come to know.
There were the firecrackers and seas of red colour everywhere which, the folklore says, are to keep the Nian away.
That the CNY is a national holiday is a testament to Malaysia’s embracing multiculturalism which, unfortunately is consistently being undermined by some supremacist groups advocating bigoted agendas.
In the name of preventing fire risks, the firecrackers were banned some 40 years ago.
Fireworks were also later banned.
But judging from the deafening noise and litup skies on CNY Eve, culture thumbs its nose to the laws, and the laws looked the other way.
Some problems solve themselves because they weren’t problems in the first place.
I grew through a phase where CNY and the many other Chinese festivals were part of me respecting my family elders’ wishes.
I’ve since come to acknowledge thar those practices, no matter how mundane, superstitious and repetitive, are my heritage and identity as a Malaysian of Chinese ancestry.
Ageing makes the cynical me appreciate and accept more readily without demanding too much explanation.
Is there a God of Fortune? I don’t know.
But I do know that his believers don’t go around killing.
Recently, some smartalecs posited that gravity doesn’t exist.
I don’t know. But I’m not going to leap off a 10-floor building to test the theory.
Would you?
Nian is a myth. So are dragons. But Mohamad flew on a winged donkey, didn’t he?
If there’s a wisdom I subscribe to, it is this:
What you dont believe or can’t see may actually be real, and what you believe may be bull shit and a figment of your imagination.
Peace.
