Celebration of Chinese New Year’s Eve at the Temple – Sounding the First Gong to Mark the Year of the Rooster

This year’s Chinese New Year’s Eve was celebrated at the temple on 27th January, attracting a crowd of over 4000 people. This evening for welcoming the New Year was of joy and festivity. Starting from 9pm Venerable Abbess Manshin presided over the “Longevity Wishing and Universally Paying Respect to all Buddhas Dharma Function” and “First Dharma Service of New Year’s Day”. This led the congregation to step into the New Year with diligence.

During the subsequent Dharma talk the Abbess talked about “Power of Giving”. For “Giving” is the most beautiful thing in the world, whether it’s giving others kind words, give others a smile, give others a sincere piece of mind, and give others service. “Giving” is also able to bring people together harmoniously. Finally “Giving” is also like cultivating a field, for as long as you can give you will be able to reap the harvest. Therefore “Giving” is the most valuable thing in the world.

Sergeant Anson Li and Officer Songtao Fu came as representative of the local police to give everyone New Year’s greetings during the New Year’s First Dharma Service. They share the story of the temple’s team work with the police and welcomed everyone to join the police’s recruitment stand during the 1st day of New Year.

At 12:00am, everyone counted the seconds and welcome the world’s first Chinese New Year. This was followed lion dance performance from members of YAD to bid New Year’s greetings to buddhas and bodhisattva and the masses. Then they also performed a New Year’s celebratory song and chanted the “100 Syllable Mantra of Vajrasattva”, bringing joy and blessings far and wide. This received much grateful applause from the audiences.

Then the crowed lined up to receive “New Year’s Auspicious Red Packet” from the Abbess, wishing to bring a piece of good luck for the New Year. One of the Kiwi families that came to experience this Chinese festival exclaimed that: “Fo Guang Shan really has the New Year’s spirit, not only do we feel blessed we also felt the place’s joy and harmony.”