For some it may be a subject, which is not as important as
others I wrote about so far.
Nevertheless, bear with me for a moment…
One of my friends (a great guy, American, white,
professional… ) has sent me recently an invitation to the Chinese New Year's celebration. As he counted - it's going to be
already a 35th celebration of the sort, he has organized. When he started doing so, we didn't
know about each other's existence.
But since we first met, almost 20 years ago, I skipped only a few of
these events. Always fun, always a
great gathering of 40-50 friends, and friend of friends… We meet sometimes in
between the events, but this celebration brings together all of us. We all laugh, eat strange food
(sometimes afraid to ask: what's in it), drink some alcoholic beverages,
bringing immediate association with a gasoline or a paint stripper… basically -
have fun.
Chinese New Year's is an event known around the World. Chinese calendar in its peculiar
references to the animals - 'symbols' of a year - is well known. Almost everybody is familiar with the
animal, which is associated with the year one was born, and search within
oneself for the particular traits of such an animal. I, for one, am a monkey… Almost everyone, at least once in their life-times violated
the local Police restrictions and shot some (illegal) fireworks for the
occasion...
The invitation came, as always, well expected, or I would
say eagerly anticipated… And then
it dawned on me… Why do we do it, besides the obvious - 'any occasion for a
party is a good one'?
Really - why do we all celebrate the Chinese New Year's, and
not any other, also based on a Lunar calendar (or LuniSolar, not a Solar, like
most of the World)? Why not Arab
New Year's, or Jewish New Year's…
Let's look into that fascinating matter a little bit deeper,
maybe let's weigh (or try it at least) how deeply our Culture - the Culture of
the Western Civilization has been affected by the various cultures with the
Lunar based calendar.
Here we go:
1. China and it's culture has been always far from the
West. Far in a physical distance,
and so different from all we have known.
It was a great mystery.
Early trade brought us the silk.
And later, the gun powder.
Finally we weren't limited to the hand thrown projectiles, or a
trebuchet. From that time on we
could stuff this compound into the iron, round containers, and eject them from
the elongated bronze tubes, called canons. The effect on the receiving party was 'hear warming'… Finally, a devastation, our enemies
deserved. Of course we haven't
stopped there. Cruise Missiles and
'Daisy Cutters' are just a natural progression…
Imported from this wast and far away land was a 'china' on
everybody's table (later too expensive to import, si in XIX c. most of Western
Countries manufactured their own 'imports' - almost like originals.
It has been absorbing our technology (not always legally),
manufactured goods, and sent them back to us.
China has been always isolated, by distance, by the Chinese
Wall (and their attitude toward the West), and then, since the beginning of the
XX c. by politics. At the end it
gave the World: Confucius, Chairman Mao, Chinese New Year's, and cheap sneakers
and electronics. It also gave the
World a fad of cryptic Chinese tattoos on so many young necks, arms and
abdomens… If only the proud
bearers knew the meaning…
2. When in the 7th Century, Muslim religion was noticed by
the Christian World, everyone knew - it was the beginning of the great era of
conquest and exploitation of the still young and divided Culture associated so
closely with this strange, new religion.
When the Holy Inquisition was doing it's 'best' to destroy the thousands
years long literary heritage of Greece - it's philosophy, epics, science etc.,
the Arab scribes meticulously
copied all the ancient works they could put their hand on and stowed them away
from the claws of the Christian Church for safe keeping. If it wasn't for Arabs, 'Homer' would
be an abstract word… and no one would calculate the area of a triangle…
And then the 'beautiful' concept of the Crusades… I am
getting all fuzzy inside… So big adventure, so much of spoils… Unfortunately
for us in the Western Civilization, Arabs can't keep their liquor, so Koran
forbade the use of it, but they keep
the grudge, quite well. We have
been reminded of it on the numerous occasions in the history - when Vienna
almost fell in 1529 to the Ottoman Empire army, or when Twin Towers did fall in
2001 in New York City. As a
result, the Western Civilization has changed dramatically, refining the old
Chinese import (gun powder) to the new heights, and new applications, and reducing our overly free societies
to fear and war mongering.
So, Arabs gave the Western Civilization all, otherwise lost
Ancient literature and Science, wonderful art and architectural patterns in the
Europe, The Patriot Act and NSA spying scandals.
3. Since its founding father Abraham (ca. 1800 BCE) Jews
were a huge influence on the surrounding cultures. Living among other cultures, in more or less the same part
of the Asia Minor, have always been a very strong and unified society. Rather peaceful peoples, often found
themselves on the receiving end of the bad will of one or another monarch in
the area. As a result forced to
flee, relocate, travelled in small or bigger groups around the World settling
down in many far away countries of the World. As I mentioned, their influence on the World's Culture has
always been strong. When our
calendar started, the Christianity began, created by the people who then, for
years surrounded and followed (a person and his teachings) a Jewish Prophet
Jesus of Nazareth, who quickly disassociated himself from the society he sprang
from. Christianity soon became the
most powerful religion in the World.
Jews created a very strong and unified Diaspora in other
countries. As most of the rulers
have never tolerated any strong, hard to control groups, the persecution of the
Jews in many countries occurred, sometimes with a passive acceptance of the
host societies, or with armed support to the Jewish community - like during the
Warsaw Uprising in 1944. No one
can even try to understand what the Jews suffered during The Holocaust. Nazis tried to wipe them out of the
planet surface. Thankfully they
failed. But this period of the XX
Century brought a very important event - a massive exodus of the Jews fleeing
the Nazi occupied Europe to the USA and other countries.
Strong and unified, already being scientist, actors, doctors
in other countries they brought their skills to the US, where their skills and
knowledge fell on a fertile ground and flourished. The science exploded, the Broadway and Hollywood opened up
and became not only cultural entities, but strong industries.
So, what did they bring to the Western World? - Inventiveness
and technology (Atom Bomb among others), great literature, music, and the whole
Entertainment Business.
I know that the above comparison comes short, and it's not
in any way a scientific summery. I
quoted, selectively, only a few aspects, although important and undeniable,
only a few.
But tell me now: Why do we celebrate a CHINESE NEW YEAR'S
and not an ARABIC NEW YEAR'S or a JEWISH NEW YEAR'S? Beats me...
