Compassionate Rebel

Not everyone in the world celebrates the New Year’s on January 1.

In fact different cultures celebrate the “new” year at different times of the year. For example, Jewish and Chumash celebrate the new year at the Fall Equinox. (Baseball players celebrate the New Year during the first week of April.)

Many Asian cultures, on the other hand, recognize the new year in connection with the moon, and winter solstice: Chinese New Year usually falls on the second new moon after the winter solstice. That’s why the date changes every year.

A monk at An Lac Buddhist Temple in Ventura this morning told me the red flowers are for long life and the pink cherry blossoms are for good luck. The statue is Guan Yin who I wrote about yesterday.