Lets Celebrate Chinese New Year!

Hello Friends!

So today is Chinese New Year or Lunar New Year and yesterday I went to Temple with some of my friends and had such a great time I wanted to share it all with you all. First off I don't really celebrate Chinese new year but a few years ago one of my friends invited my friends and I to go to temple with her for Chinese New Year and we really enjoyed the experience that we go every year now. It's so beautiful their I just wanted to share my experience.

So we went to Hsi Lai Temple and when you go around Chinese New Year the temple is fully decorated with lanterns everywhere and flowers, its just beautiful. Since this year is the year of the Monkey they had monkey's everywhere. 

So one of the first things we do when we come to the temple is we go to this wishing tree. Its this gorgeous gold tree that is decorated with the theme of the year and like I said it's the year of the monkey, so they had adorable monkey's hanging around the tree. So what you do is you get this coin with a red ribbon attached to it and they each have little blessings written on them, mine said "Harmony, Joy and Wealth," and they are given to you so you don't choose them. After you make a wish and you throw the coin with the red ribbon into the tree, so in the end you see this golden tree filled with thousands of red ribbons hanging from it, it's beautiful and you can imagine those are a thousand wishes for the new year. 

Next thing we did was we got these papers that have sayings on them, they are Dharma Words or saying on them. After we got them we went to get them translated by the monks. Sometimes you might think you understand what it means but it actually means something else and it really relates to your life currently. Last year I got one that really related to my life and this year not too much but it's ok. This yeah mine said "Generosity leads to a rich life. Stinginess leads to a poor." I got the shortest one of all my friends and mine was pretty straight forward but it reminded me of my grandmother because she was one of the most giving person I've ever known. 

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You know I couldn't write a post without giving you some outfit pictures, I didn't take a lot because their was so many people and I just wanted to enjoy myself with my friends and take on the experience. 

Here are more of the decorations that were around the temple to celebrate the year of the Monkey.

One of the last things we did was we got a candle and we offered it to the gods in the temple. This is when you ask them for guidance or help for the upcoming year. I wasn't able to take pictures inside the actual temple because it's not allowed. But you actually bring the candles into the temple but because their are so many they bring them outside and make sure they keep burning until it's completely run out, they had some on the other side that were almost done but I didn't get a picture of them. 

The temple is filled with lanterns everywhere. My friend told me that each lantern is actually donated by someone and I'm not sure if you can see in the picture above but they have tags with the names of the people who donated or sponsored the lantern. Now my friend told me at night it looks beautiful because all the lanterns are lit up, I've never been at night but maybe one day I'll go.

Thank you so much for reading I know this post is a little different then what I normally do but I thought it would be fun to share my experience and the beauty of it. If you celebrate Chinese New Year or Luna New Year, Happy New Year to you! If you do celebrate what are some of your traditions? 

XOXO - Nina
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