"Do YOU celebrate Chinese New Year?"

Believe it or not, I have been asked this question before, more than once.
Yes, with the need to provide justification for me celebrating the festival

"Why?"

The reason being?

"But, I thought, you're a Catholic?"

Simply because, I go to church.

Of course, there is nothing wrong with the questions posed, nor are they absurd.
I would put it in a way that it is just merely a case of confusion.

You see, I guess it stems a long way from a mix of historic linings along with the difference in cultures and understanding of the colorful varieties we have in this whole big melting pot of a world here that could very well lead to the confusion that pursued.

It was perhaps that tip of the surface of a culture, or story that one sees, rather than the depths of insights that settle in the mind and heart of those who spectate from their boundaries.

To make it simple, it is just not as apparent when it is not the same as where they came from.

The Chinese celebrate the Chinese New Year, and as most of the traditions revolve around the various traditions originating from popular beliefs; with many of religious origins (non-Christian, of course), it is often perceived as a religious festival rather than an ethnic or cultural one.

It was also popular belief, that the Chinese are mainly in the likes of adopting the religions of Taoism, Buddhism which are common during the early days.
In fact, animism also marks the early beginnings of the Chinese settlers back then.

The key here is that very word; the Chinese.

The origin is the Chinese; the people.

Why are they the Chinese?

To make it simpler, all Chinese hail from China, and as they dot the various spots all around the world, they are still considered the descendants of their ancestors who originally hailed from China.
It is the ancestors, in fact, who migrated out of China back then, to pursue opportunities outside of their own motherland.

It is the origin of a race.

If you look at it, the Chinese New Year is named for that very own reason.

In short, the festival is more of a cultural or that of a race nature rather than that of a religion.

The Chinese is simply a race, or an ethnicity that makes up the population.
The religion however, is a choice one makes to adopts that belief of faith.

A Chinese is of nature; where one is born to a Chinese family - a continuation of a family of descendants who hailed from China.

Chinese New Year is that celebration which gathers all those of that very ethnicity together as a whole, in a massive and jovial way to welcome a brand new year.

A New Beginning.

As a community.

It is a mark of significance, it is a symbol.
It is a culture.

Simply, it is also just a tradition.

A Chinese could be a Muslim, a Buddhist, a Christian, a Taoist, or even a non-religious person for that matter.

It really doesn't matter the faith they chose to adopt, for the celebration of the change of a Lunar calendar has nothing to do with the religion.

It is just a way of tradition, and a celebration in unity as all the Chinese worldwide welcome the new year together, yet distinctly in their own ways.

The unity is the togetherness as everyone observes that change of the Lunar calendar and that brand new beginning of another year.

Rather than racial in nature, I like to call it cultural and traditional, in terms of the practices of the celebration.

It is a festival for all the Chinese, regardless of one's faith or religion.

It is a continuity of the early traditions of our ancestors, it is not a proclamation of race or nation.

So, the answer is yes, I am a Catholic, but I am also a Chinese and it is this tradition which makes up the culture in our root lineage of the beginnings of our forefathers who hailed from the land of their origin.

It does not matter how you look like, who you are or your beliefs.

It is a culture, but most of all, it is a tradition.

A tradition which marks the beginning, of one's roots and of one's very own Identity.