Gong Xi Fai Chai

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Chinese New Year has arrived. The rats have taken over!

Living in a Chinese influenced environment, everyone hopes first for a prosperous New Year to come, followed by health and blessings for the family.

Its a very different approach to the society I grew up in, where money, although everyone must think about it, is not that openly celebrated as the thing to aim for. I always asked myself why is not health or family blessings first? Happiness or Love? Clearly money means nothing to you if you are sick or your family is in constant fighting and bitterness or you cant find love anywhere.

The question might be if you can reach a certain level of happiness without money? It does not strike me that the Superrich are happier then others, but the same I could say about people living under the bridge, or people having to depend on others all the time. If you worry constantly about basic things around you: Enough food, shelter, clothes, basic transport... yes, I can see that money can change your state of happiness.

An interesting study I remember years back also showed that if you earn less money then the people around you, you hang out with, you struggle for happiness all the same, despite the fact that you may be able to cover your basics needs. Saying: If you are relatively poor and the people around you are also poor, you still feel accepted and relatively happy.

Anyow! Two oranges are handed over in this times, when you visit relatives. Its a gesture of respect and the wish for prosperity, health and family blessings. A Singaporean historian told me the oranges symbolize gold... here we go again!

A the end of the day, I think its great that foreign traditions, make us think about our own traditions and values in life, in times when christmas is hardly to be able to trigger any inspiring thoughts anymore.

We take things, which are all around us, so easily for granted and dont see its beauty and value anymore.

I always loved traveling for this exact fact. It opens your eyes again to things you took for granted. A photographer and any decent human being for that matter, should try to look at the world every day, as a newly born child does. With fresh eyes and a fresh spirit.

We can't... but traveling gets us very close to that state of mind.

Gong Xi Fai Chai - my wish for others and myself is: An Open Hearth and an Open mind for the Year of the"Rat".

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