I had the pleasure of being in Hong Kong for Chinese New Year--the year of the Tiger. I had actually wanted to leave Hong Kong for this holiday, but so do 7 million other people, and usually trips are booked a year in advance with a huge mark up. I decided that instead of pay a fortune and fight the crowds, I would make my own Chinese New Year tiger fun, right here in Hong Kong.
I have been dying to see a temple, and I'm sure my friend and work colleague Sabita has had enough of me constantly saying, "I want to go to a temple! I want to go to a temple!", like a three year old. The weather has been really crappy in Hong Kong, so each weekend, my "I want to go to a temple!" pleas are met with one look out the window at the pouring rain, and are put on hold for another week.
But no more.
On Valentine's day I woke up like a child at Christmas. Today was temple day. Window check - pouring rain. It didn't matter. There could have been in a typhoon, I was going to the Wong Tai Sin temple on the edge of Kowloon and the New Territories today. So did thousands of other people who did not leave Hong Kong for New Years.
We queued up at the entrance...masses of people, moving in slow intermittent herds, sheltered by wilted umbrellas in a rainbow of colours. It was dangerous work. I was frequently speared by umbrella spokes, but I quickly learned to keep my head down, shielding my eyes from the rogue spokes. This was not for the faint of heart or the impatient. As I looked around me, I soon realized Sabita and I were the only "non-Chinese" people at the temple. No one else was as adventurous (or stupid) as us to visit the temple on what I would find out later is the busiest day of the year.
When we finally got in, we paid a donation to the temple, took some incense, lit it on a fiery pyre, and entered the temple. My breath was taken away by the smoke billowing up from the stacks of incense that each worshipper clutched in their hands. I couldn't figure out why every one had so much incense. Was it that the more incense you had, the more pious you were? The amount of incense is directly proportional to the offering you are making or the luck that would be granted to you the following year? We shuffled up to the front of the temple, said a prayer, made our incense offering and quickly exited the temple.
After our temple experience, we were famished. A quick MTR trip to Tsim Tsa Shui led us to a fantastic Chinese restaurant, where we gorged ourselves (this is not an understatement) on dim sum, and I actually, for the first time in a while, (gulp) ate pork. I ate pork. I did. I know I am a vegetarian and all that, but the fluffy pork bun just looked SO good, and I was so hungry. And so, with a devious glare in my eye I took a large bite, chewed it slowly, savouring it's pork flavoured goodness and then I swallowed. I looked down at the pork bun, wondering when the guilt would hit me, but it didn't, so I took another bite. Yum! I'm not back on the meat bandwagon, so please stop cheering my carnivorous friends, it was a minor slip up, but one that I don't regret. It was an amazing pork bun and an amazing (and unexpected day).
In actuality, I forgot that it was Valentine's Day today. To me, it was Temple Day. A day in which I would share in something very personal and very important to so many people. I would stand, one among the thousands, and pray, to the same God, a different God, it doesn't matter really. Strange thing is, when I am in Toronto, and I am single on Valentine's Day, despite my very best efforts, I do occasionally get a pang for someone. I do get that little feeling that makes me wish I had someone to tell me Happy Valentine's Day. I fall prey to the commercialism of it. This year, I didn't even think about it until I was reminded by a friend. My day had filled me up, and there was no emptiness left to fill. To me, February 14th was temple day and the day I ate pork again. And my heart was in it 100 per cent.
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