Of all gods and deities worshipped by us, Chinese all around the world, the God of Wealth surely ranks as the most warmly received and well loved.
After all, the God of Wealth is believed to make his rounds and endow each household with abundance and wealth during the Chinese New Year season and he makes his grand entrance past midnight, tonight after we celebrate our Chinese New Year's Eve and Reunion dinner 21st January 2023.
The God of Wealth is said to be positioned in a certain direction at a specific time. 30 minutes past midnight tonight will bring us to the fresh hour of the Chinese New Year. It shall be 12.30am on 22nd January 2023, local to your time wherever in the world you are at. To welcome the God of Wealth at this hour is believed to be the most auspicious and hits its peak when it comes to the amount of abundance the God of Wealth will dispense. Call it the first mover's advantage if you like.
In the past, a custom commonly practised on Chinese New Year's eve involved children. After a sumptuous dinner, children will be allowed to wander around their nieghbourhood. They will carry along a stack of couplets, a pair of red paper written with back ink, the auspicious words welcoming the New Year. Usually, it is comes with a depiction of the God of Wealth. They will then go door to door announcing that the God of Wealth has arrived. In exchange, households and businesses will buy or compensate these children with tokens comprising money, sweets or savoury. The symbolism of this practice is that the God of Wealth has come to your door. This is our version of 'Trick or Treat'.
Today's practice of Welcoming the God of Wealth has various versions.
Many will visit some temples that selectively open up for devotees to pray for blessings past midnight tonight.
Others who would rather invite the God of Wealth into their homes will prepare a table of offerings comprising food, fruits, flowers and wine to offer the God of Wealth. Thirty minutes past midnight, people will face the directions as guided and start making wishes.
In reality, we are trying to align and connect to the best energies of the day in hope of making our wishes comes true. What better way than to do this at the start of the Chinese New Year ? Should you be lucky enough to see a bright star there, you are blessed.
To make it simple, all one needs to do is to face the guided directions at 12.30am past midnight tonight and connect to the stars above to make our wishes. The condition is that you will need to open up the windows and doors towards that supposed directions and light up the house, especially the main entrance and living room areas.
The God of Wealth is a personification of a star and an energy that exists to coordinate ourselves and position us to the direction that is channelling the vibrations our way to connect the Universe, Earth and Man in perfect synchronicity.
A little bit of imagination and creativity go a long way here.
I wish you all a Happy, healthy and prosperous Year of the Water Rabbit.