KONG HEE FATT CHOY, CHUC MUNG NAM MOI AND
WHO ELSE IS CELEBRATING THEIR NEW YEAR.
If you think that Indian tribes living in
the United States have all forgotten their traditions and are eager to be
become brown skinned Americans, I can only say: there are ancient ceremonies
being carried out in this great Turtle Island of theirs, almost on a regular
basis.
I am very privileged to be informed about
the arrival of the New Year among the Kikapu of Mexico. I knew that their new
year fell some times in February each year but it had to be announced
celestially and interpreted by the Spiritual Leader.
I had been conversing with my adopted
sister from the tribe.
She had been waiting for the arrival of the
New Year so that she can be fully immersed in the culture for two weeks in
their ceremonial territory.
Two days she announced:
Finally The New Year has arrived, according
to our Spiritual Leader.
We the outsiders are so fixed upon time and
measurement and quantity of life that we forget that these ancient people have
different qualities of measurement.
It was about 6 30 pm last night, she wrote
again. The skies looked so nice. There was a light rain falling. There was
thunder and lightening in the skies so that every tribal member could see.
I am getting ready now, dear brother, to
leave work. I have the dry pumpkin seeds and deer ribs ready. I will be on the
road in a couple of hours and will be away for ten to eleven days.
I am going to be a REAL Kikapu! For the
next ten to twelve days. All of us Kikapu who are working in the USA will be
going to our spiritual grounds in Mexico. That place would come alive with all
of us there plus up until April there would be a lot of movements in the
village there. We have to make the summerhouses ready, get ready for the hot
weather to come. Then the winter seeps in December and it looks like it takes a
very long time to leave us alone.
Our celebration of the New Year is not with
dancing or drinking, but with prayers. It would take 8 or 9 days for all the
prayers for all the clans. This get-together with the families is something we
wait all year as Indios Kikapu. After the prayers are done we have to do a
ceremony for those who had begun their other journey during this past year.
For the next 12 days I would be REAL me, a
Kikapu living the name given to me by my relatives and don't have to answer to
the name the outsiders have given me.
I had met the Spiritual Leader on more than
one occasion in their country in Mexico and he had helped me on more than one
occasion. We have to take care of our doctor so that he can take care of us, he
joked.
Enjoy your days as your ancestors did long
before there was any other foreign tongue heard in this great turtle Island of
yours. May peace be with you.
It is now 11 52 pm in Kuala Lumpur and 10
52 pm in Jakarta, HoChiMinh City and Hanoi.
Millions of people would be celebrating and
enjoying the unique festival of the arrival of the New Year. Lunar New Year of
the Chinese and the Vietnamese.
Kong Hee Fatt Choy
Chuc Mung Nam Noi
Especially to my dearest Chinese friends in
KL, Singapour, Jakarta, Bogor, HCMC and Hanoi.
I feel the happiness of all the people celebrating
this Year of the Serpent across South East Asia.
