Picking the first buds of spring
(Baonghean.vn) -The most important moment of Lunar New Year is New Year's Eve. In Japan, after 11 pm until New Year's Eve, thousands of people flock to temples to visit, buy charms, buy tablets, to pray for a prosperous new year. In our country, New Year's Eve is also associated with customs such as: preparing offerings, going to wish a happy new year, visiting the house first and of course, the custom of "picking luck".
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Praying for luck is a need of people to express their desire for fulfillment in wealth, children, family, grace... In your life, you have certainly reached out to pick luck a few times to fulfill your wishes for luck and success.
Yes! It is really reassuring when during the transition from the old year to the new year, the family has a branch of green, fresh, spring-like buds with good wishes. The beauty and human meaning of the custom of picking buds now cannot be denied by anyone. And so, the custom of picking buds in early spring can take place in any location. The problem is where and how to pick them appropriately.
In the past, the place to pick the lucky branch was usually at home and ask for the lucky branch at the temple. In the family, after setting up the altar for the New Year's Eve, the homeowner would go to the garden to pick a lucky branch and bring it into the house for everyone to see and respectfully put it in a flower vase hanging on the wall or on the family altar.
In many places, after picking, people also speculate about the fortune of individuals or families by fortune telling, meaning that if they get branches, leaves, beautiful fruits, many buds, strange shapes, they will have good luck and prosperity in the new year. In some cases, the house does not have a garden, before New Year's Eve, the homeowner goes to the temple to worship Buddha and then asks for a young branch prepared by the temple, called lucky fortune, from Buddha to bless his family.
However, to pray for good luck, people can make their wishes come true (picking buds) anywhere. Young men and women, while enjoying the spring scenery at scenic spots or in spring gardens, few can resist picking some buds. Picking buds in early spring is an act of harmony between humans - heaven, earth and nature. In the universe whose center is the relationship: Heaven - Earth - Human, picking buds not only shows the harmony of the desire to reproduce between humans and heaven and earth. In any case, the buds in early spring that humans pick are like a medium to transfer the vitality of heaven and earth to humans so that all things can reproduce.
Therefore, the blessing here is only symbolic. This custom will be beautiful and meaningful if people understand the true nature of the custom. Whether asking for blessing at home, at a temple, or at a sightseeing spot, remember that this is just a tiny branch of blessing that carries symbolic weight, not its size.
Perhaps due to a lack of understanding, in recent years the custom of picking spring buds has transformed into a deforestation and tree destruction that disrupts the ecological balance. Trees on the streets, in village roads, in ecological gardens... are often left desolate and miserable. Especially young men and women, who are so charming and beautiful, in the fresh spring air, carelessly break, chop, and screw large branches and then strut around on the street. They think that the larger the branch, the more buds. But they do not know that because of a misunderstanding of the philosophical meaning of a custom, it has turned into an act of environmental destruction.
I hope that the custom of picking spring buds is understood in its true meaning, as a cultural feature of the Vietnamese people.
Huu Dao
