Spring Festival and Christmas:
A Reflection on Harmony and Love
by Jay McDaniel and Han Sun (孙晗)
This is a season for Chinese to travel. The lunar new year has arrived. In China we call it the Spring Festival. It reminds me of what so many Americans do at Christmastime. Spring Festival is a time to go home and be with your parents, your siblings, your grandparents.
There’s an old saying that “the eagerness to get home is like an arrow that has just been shot.” That’s why you see so many people who would rather stand or sit on the floor the whole night or day and night on crowded trains.
There’s an old saying that “the eagerness to get home is like an arrow that has just been shot.” That’s why you see so many people who would rather stand or sit on the floor the whole night or day and night on crowded trains.
The way that Chinese express their love is somewhat different from many whom I have met in America.
Chinese do not feel it necessary to say "I love you" out loud. That is reserved for special occasions and special relationships. Nor are we inclined to give big, warm hugs, which is an American custom I've seen often.
Chinese do not feel it necessary to say "I love you" out loud. That is reserved for special occasions and special relationships. Nor are we inclined to give big, warm hugs, which is an American custom I've seen often.
Christians are taught to give their love to God and then to take the spirit of that love and extend it to others, too. Not only friends and family members, but all who are in need: the poor, the powerless, the marginalized. Many Chinese are uncertain about whether they believe in God. I know there are Christians in China who find this love natural, but many of us -- most of us -- are not religious. But the love we feel toward our families has the same feeling as the spirit as the love many Christians feel.
The other day I met a Christian who said to me that, from her point of view, wherever there is love there is God's spirit, even among people who are uncertain about God's existence. If this is true, then God not only exists in the West, but also in East Asia. And this love can be seen at the Spring Festival.
The other day I met a Christian who said to me that, from her point of view, wherever there is love there is God's spirit, even among people who are uncertain about God's existence. If this is true, then God not only exists in the West, but also in East Asia. And this love can be seen at the Spring Festival.
For us love is expressed in caring actions such as helping with housework, buying things for others, and sharing life stories with each other. There can be gender differences, too. One classic song that has touched many people’s hearts is below, translated as “Come home more often.” It speaks of father’s love as giving advice about life and work and mother’s love is in the form of concern and care about living healthily and happily. As God’s children, the core of love Christians or westerners have is similar, but in a more broadly sense.
Usually the time before and after the new year seems busier for Chinese people because they pay visit to good friends and relatives. They want to give their new years’ greetings to others.
Perhaps this is one way that, for those of us in China who are not religious, we nevertheless feel an impulse to reach out, beyond family, to others, including those who are not our kin. Christianity is a religion which encourages treating all people as "brothers" and "sisters." Christians say that God loves all people, regardless of race and class, gender and nationality. At Spring Festival many of us have intimations of this possibility, too.
Perhaps this is one way that, for those of us in China who are not religious, we nevertheless feel an impulse to reach out, beyond family, to others, including those who are not our kin. Christianity is a religion which encourages treating all people as "brothers" and "sisters." Christians say that God loves all people, regardless of race and class, gender and nationality. At Spring Festival many of us have intimations of this possibility, too.
At Christmastime in the United States, many families have traditional foods that they enjoy. I went to one house during this season and the primary food was turkey and dressing. The family said that this food brings the family together, and one member of the family said that "togetherness through sharing a meal" is not only a family custom but a Christian custom.
She explained that Jesus shared a final meal with his own friends before his death and that eating with others, in a spirit of friendship, was one of his primary forms of mission. She called it table fellowship.
We Chinese were born with a sense of table fellowship, too. In so many ways we are a food culture. Chinese dumplings (Jiaozi) are the key food at lunar new year. They are delicious literally, but more importantly, they signify a kind of harmony which is very close to the Chinese soul.
She explained that Jesus shared a final meal with his own friends before his death and that eating with others, in a spirit of friendship, was one of his primary forms of mission. She called it table fellowship.
We Chinese were born with a sense of table fellowship, too. In so many ways we are a food culture. Chinese dumplings (Jiaozi) are the key food at lunar new year. They are delicious literally, but more importantly, they signify a kind of harmony which is very close to the Chinese soul.
First, there is the process of making them. On the eve of lunar new year, it is Chinese tradition that the whole family gather around the table to make dumplings together after the big family feast. Some make the dough; some roll the wrappers; some make the fillings; and some wrap the dumplings. In this preparing together there is a feeling of family unity and harmony. The dumplings wouldn't be "dumplings" be without everyone’s participation.
Second, the dumplings themselves. The shape is like a gold ingot in ancient China and the fillings combine meat, vegetables and seafood---harmony of the nature. In Christianity there are many symbols of togetherness. A Christian friend calls these symbols icons. He says that some of them are the images you see in the walls of churches: images of Jesus and his disciples, including those of him sharing meals with others. For us the dumpling is an icon: an icon of differences in life (among family members, among friends, among can be complementary rather than contradictory, enriching one another. One of the advisors for this website, Dr. Zhihe Wang, often says "harmony is not sameness." The harmony within the dumpling is an icon for this non-sameness. This harmony is itself delicious to eat and also, at a deeper level, delicious to enjoy. We Chinese sense that, if there is hope for the world, it needs to have this kind of harmony.
Second, the dumplings themselves. The shape is like a gold ingot in ancient China and the fillings combine meat, vegetables and seafood---harmony of the nature. In Christianity there are many symbols of togetherness. A Christian friend calls these symbols icons. He says that some of them are the images you see in the walls of churches: images of Jesus and his disciples, including those of him sharing meals with others. For us the dumpling is an icon: an icon of differences in life (among family members, among friends, among can be complementary rather than contradictory, enriching one another. One of the advisors for this website, Dr. Zhihe Wang, often says "harmony is not sameness." The harmony within the dumpling is an icon for this non-sameness. This harmony is itself delicious to eat and also, at a deeper level, delicious to enjoy. We Chinese sense that, if there is hope for the world, it needs to have this kind of harmony.
Christians give appreciations to God for a good past year and pray for a prosperous new one. We Chinese do this, too. We express our appreciations for the good things that have happened in the past year, and we also express hope for the coming year. Indeed we sometimes write couplets with the first part speaking to the achievements of the past year and the second sending wishes for the new one. Again, from the words spoken by Chinese we could see nothing, but from the details they do we can see a lot. Perhaps God is love, as I am told the Bible says. But love is not simply a word. It is an action, and it can be expressed in many ways. A silent loving deed means more than the word “love” said a million times with no concrete action done.
This website is influenced by a philosopher named Alfred North Whitehead. There are increasing numbers of Chinese intellectuals who find his way of thinking very hopeful for the Chinese future. Whitehead was a philosopher and mathematician. He was deeply interested in the natural sciences and wrote a famous book called Science and the Modern World. In that book, which has been translated into Chinese, he speaks of a divine reality at the heart of the universe. He believes that this divine reality is consonant with science, and that scientists can believe in science and believe in God at the same time. These two beliefs can be "harmonized" with ease. Later in his career he wrote a book called Adventures of Ideas in which he proposed that God is the Harmony of Harmonies: the reality in our universe in which, and through which, all things can come together. In a way, Whitehead conceived of God as the great dumpling maker. The one in whose spirit we humans are, or can be, together...in love.
Perhaps this impulse toward Harmony is a good principle by which to orient our lives, whether we are religious or non-religious. And perhaps the point of Spring Festival, for us Chinese, is to remember and reclaim this Harmony. In this remembering and reclaiming, there can be something very fresh and free. Something Spring-like.
In China, people believe Spring is the beginning of a new year and also everything, when love is budding until it blooms, so that’s why we call it the Spring Festival. In celebrating it, we are invited to love our loved ones, love our neighbors, to love the friendless. Even, so Christians say, to love our enemies. It's worth considering. It's worth hoping for. Happy Year of Dragon!
