By Tim Lee
Lunar New Year 2026 was on Tuesday 17 February, a day before Ash Wednesday. It runs for 15 days, ending with the Lantern Festival on 3 March, which is also celebrated as Chap Goh Mei, a time for romance. This is about a fortnight after Valentine’s Day. Ramadan, the start of the Muslim fasting month, fell on 19 February this year.
The convergence of Lunar New Year, Lent and Ramadan happens once in 163 years. The last time this occurred was in 1863, when Christians, Chinese, and Muslims lived, for the most part, separate lives. These days we rub up against one another all the time.
For Catholics who, like myself, straddle two of these cultures, the overlap between Lunar New Year and Lent can lead to tension between faith and culture. When Lent precedes Lunar New Year by a few days, we find ourselves fasting then feasting too soon. This year, we feast then fast then feast then fast again. Or at least some of us do.
Lunar New Year is celebrated by the Chinese, Vietnamese, Thai, Korean, Japanese and other Asian communities. Their zodiac calendar cycles through 12 animals and five elements – wood, fire, earth, metal and water. 2024 was the year of the wood dragon and 2026 is the year of the fire horse.
Combining animals and elements produces a cycle of 60 years, so the previous year of the fire horse was 1966.
Some Asian folks are superstitious about the zodiac signs, reading them for influences on our character and life trajectory, including which signs are compatible in marriage.
There is a persistent myth in Japan that women born in the year of the fire horse make domineering wives.
The year 2024 saw a surge of births among Asian families hoping for a ‘dragon’ baby, preferably a boy.
This speaks of a sense of fatalism – a lack of agency in what happens to us – and contrasts with the Christian belief that we are called to be saints though not without struggle.
Another difference between East and West is collectivism vs individualism. Asian societies that have embraced Western norms retain vestiges of collectivism like arranged marriages, expressed in parental pressure on young people to choose the ‘correct’ spouse.
Marriage is seen as a generational imperative whereas young people in the West see it as a personal aspiration, even at the expense of family harmony.
The skewed focus on individual choice is reflected in the high, and increasing, rates of divorce in modern times. This is tragic. In Eastern cultures, marriage is seen as a lifetime commitment.
As Catholics, we believe that it is a lifetime covenant between a man and a woman in the presence of God and that a family reflects the bond between Christ and his Church.
Traditionally, families both East and West regarded a new child as a great blessing bestowed on a couple – whether by fate or destiny or God. However, as individualism merged with secularism and God was banished from public life, children became optional extras, luxury items for those who can afford them.
Sadly, this has affected families Asian and Christian alike. Birth rates are sinking nearly everywhere.
Christians lament the disappearance of the divine from everyday life, to be replaced by consumerism and a culture of mindless distraction. But Asian cultures have the same problem.
As secularism and commercialism march on, we are losing the values of our ancestors. Some customs around Lunar New Year, instead of expressing a sense of community, our fleeting mortality, and our smallness in the universe, have become another marketing opportunity.
Lunar New Year is a time of fresh hopes and aspirations. Here’s one for Christians, traditional Asians, and Muslims alike.
In this season of romance, feasting and fasting, may we open our hearts to the love of the God who has given us all that we have and all that we are – in sickness and in health, in good times and in bad, till death brings us home.
