fan tai sui

this newer trend of observing an additional animist, astrological, pseudo-religious practice seems to have gotten people under its charm (pun intended). the grand duke of jupiter influences an entire quadrant of the 12 earthly branches, determining the auspiciousness of your chinese horoscope sign for any given year. prayers and charms are the usual palliative for such infringements which one would not have any power to affect otherwise.

apart from its suspect origins and composition (being leery of neither tradition, custom, religion nor even superstition, but objecting to the vague mish-mash of beliefs arbitrarily lumped together such as the layman cannot but fail to understand what exactly it is that he is suppose to observe), the lemming-like approach to such trends to jump on the bandwagon and do the little that is necessary to ward off the impending negative karma of the coming year is exactly the sort of thing that will continue to perpetuate the snake-oil scepticism of animist religious belief, occlude further the simplicity of faith practices of those who do believe in what they believe, and exacerbate the gap between the two.

post-lupercalia

it's hard to find a middle ground between those who believe in a more dramatic expression of such a day of celebration, who necessitate the whole machinery of florid display and gastronomic assistance, and those who steadfastly dismiss all claims of import attributed to such a date, preferring to pretend that their erstwhile lives regularly exhibit such dedicated joyous fervour.

i'd much prefer it if people remembered to at least intend to express love first, both ostentation and pragmatism be damned.