Chinese New Year is usually a month-long celebration of joyous reunions, endless gathering and abundant feasting. While it is time for celebrating new beginnings and wishing one another luck, Chinese New Year is often peppered with many Do's and Don'ts and superstitious beliefs that can sometimes prove exhausting for those who just want to celebrate the New Year sans the headache of following every superstitious beliefs.
For the common person, truth can sometimes be harder to separate from fiction. On one hand, we worry that if we do not follow these traditions, our older relatives will be offended and on the other hand, we fear that these traditions might be a buzz kill and will take out the joy of celebrating the New Year. For what it is, many would find that it is hard to separate what is cultural and religious from what is Feng Shui.
Where's the God of Wealth?
Part of the spiritual practice for Chinese New Year involves praying to the God of Wealth in hopes that the God will bless the household with an abundance of wealth and prosperity for the year. The confusion starts when people have trouble deciding the right direction when praying to the God of Wealth and will often turn to Feng Shui because they believe that since Feng Shui constantly talks about direction, they will be able to find a direction to welcome the God of Wealth here. Unfortunately, there is strictly no concept of "God of Wealth direction" in classical Feng Shui per se.
However, there is a Wealth Star for the day and it is often this direction (the location of the Daily Wealth Star) that people take as the God of Wealth direction for the year.These religious and cultural offshoots practices stems from the fact that since some form of Feng Shui has developed religious or cultural significance back in the olden days, the common folk would simply associate such activities relating to Feng Shui with religious and cultural practices.
Most importantly, don't worry if you end up praying in the wrong direction - no bad luck or end-of-the-world calamity will strike you from such a situation. Unless of course, you are psychologically convinced that bad luck will strike. Common sense dictates that praying to the God of Wealth is merely a traditional practice done to appease your elders and to cement a bond of togetherness for the family.
The Grand Duke
Offering prayers to the Grand Duke is akin to praying to the God of Wealth, a religious and/or cultural practice somewhat mistakenly assumed to be part of Feng Shui. Traditionally, people pray to the Grand Duke or Tai Sui, in Feng Shui term, which, few realize that they are actually praying in a particular direction that is commonly afflicted with negative energies each year.
This practice was given a religious or culture overtone because in the olden days, people simply assumed that Tai Sui was a deity they had to pray to avoid conflicts in their home. They did not realize that it was planetary position in space and that the Tai Sui that people pray to and "Tai Sui" term used in Feng Shui are two different subject matters altogether. On a general note, in any given year, there are three main afflicted directions that can be said to be negative - the Grand Duke, Three Killings and Year Breaker directions.
Since these three directions are based on the planetary alignment of certain stars and only follow the movement of our planet, there is really no need to appease or pray in these directions. Remember there are no spiritual practices in Feng Shui. When it comes to these afflicted directions, all that needs to be done is to avoid renovation or breaking the ground in these sectors. But if it is unavoidable, it is crucial to select a good date to commence such ground-breaking activities. Having a good date will help minimize the negative energies and keep it at bay.
What's the best time to start working after Chinese New Year?
Aside from celebrating the usual pomp of celebrating the joy of Chinese New Year, the importance of choosing an auspicious date to start work has something to do with Feng Shui. Since Date Selection is an integral aspect of the practice, the concept of Date Selection is to imbue the activity with energies that suit the type of activity based on certain astronomical position of the stars.
To keep things simple, Feng Shui practitioners would sometimes label certain dates as being "auspicious" for starting work after Chinese New Year. Though if one were to follow the proper date selection techniques, it is general understood that days are never described as just "auspicious" and "inauspicious". Depending on which technique is used, it is possible to actually narrow down the energies that are in force on that day and what kind of activities these are suited to.
Today, the most popular date selection techniques such as Shen Sha, Xuan Kong Da Gua, Dong Gong, Wu Tu and Qi Men Dun Jia are widely practiced with each having its unique and effective form in its own right. While most of the dates available are usually generic good dates, it has to be viewed in the context of the individual person BaZi and also the type of energies affecting that may be better suited to certain types of business.
However, it is best to determine what will be the best date for you or your business based on the personalization of your BaZi. The most important thing is to get the time right and start work. Contrary to popular belief, there is technically no need to start working on an auspicious day if it is too inconvenient for you but if it makes you feel better and helps motivates your business and staff, there really is no harm in starting work on that day, is it?
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