Vegetarian food stalls and a program showcasing Filipino-Chinese cultural performances were among the highlights of the Chinese New Year celebration at the Fo Guang Shan Buddhist Light International Association (BLIA)-Chu-Un Temple in Vicente Rama Avenue in Cebu City last Thursday.
Visitors, including entire families, flocked to the Chu Un Temple in Banawa to watch the traditional dragon and lion dances that were held to attract good health and good fortune while driving away negative energies.
The BLIA Performing Arts, Sinulog Idol winners and School of Rock performers entertained visitors with songs and dances, both pop and Chinese traditional numbers, as the crowd waited for the ritual ringing of the gong and ta fireworks display.
Fortune cookies, chocolate drinks, organic fruits and vegetables, cupcakes shaped like sheep and vegetarian wraps were displayed in a food fair in front of the temple that was adorned with red Chinese lanterns and a life-sized matryoshka doll in the middle.
Oj Hofer, BLIA president English chapter, said the vegetarian food was in in line with their Mahayana Buddhism principle of compassion for all living things.
Offerings
Hofer said those who visit the temple can offer prayers in many ways. Some students donated lanterns as their way of asking Buddha for wisdom.
Some write their prayers on a piece of paper and clip it on the tree inside the temple. There were also fruit offerings inside the temple.
Activities such as calligraphy writing and tai chi demonstrations were part of the celebration.
A photo exhibit of Cebu City landmarks was also on display.
Accommodate
Dr. Henry Espiritu, political science professor at the University of the Philippines-Cebu (UP-Cebu) said what makes the Chinese New Year celebration in Chu Un Temple different is their welcomeing attitude to outsiders.
“They try to put Chinese culture in the context of Filipino culture. It’s not a one-way relationship. It’s like the Chinese also learn from Filipinos. The idea of acculturation and inculturation, of learning from each other’s culture,” he told Cebu Daily News.
Children and adults took turns posing for photos of a life-sized image of a white goat in the temple.
A life-sized cut-out image of Venerable Master Hsing Yun, founder of Fo Guang Shan and BLIA, also stands near an altar of Buddha.
The BLIA is an organization of young and adult lay devotees under the Fo Guang Shan Monastic Orders which emphasizes the teaching of humanistic Buddhism.