Margaret gets her desk blessed... maybe

Woe be to those who thought lunch was more important.

As part of the Chinese New Year festivities, Margaret's company brought this character into the office to bless cubes and desks for all who were interested. As a rooster, Margaret was definitely interested. Her horoscope, as published in the Strait Times, specifically said roosters are in for a challenging year at work. She didn't want to miss out on this opportunity to improve her prospects. Luckily for us, she managed to get a couple of pictures with her BlackBerry so we could all get a peek inside this unique aspect of modern corporate culture. Here's a picture of her desk getting the the karma applied.

Probably not as creepy as it looks.

With this blessing, Margaret should be able to enjoy some good fortune at work this year. There's just one caveat. Tradition calls for giving $8 in a red envelope to the lion. Margaret explains: "The red envelopes are called ang pow and this is left on top of two oranges on the desk. The tradition is $8 because it's considered lucky. I guess eight in Chinese sounds similar to the word for wealth. Apparently, $6 is also okay because six sounds like smooth and can imply a smooth year ahead." 

And yet, she only had four dollars. Her colleagues said that was out of the question. Four is an unlucky number and would be bad form. Better to leave an empty envelope, they advised. So Margaret, based on this local knowledge, stiffed the lion. All he got were a couple of oranges and an empty red envelope. Is this bad? No one knows. But it seems a little dicey. Perhaps she should rely on skill at work in 2011 and wait for 2012 to count on luck.

Fascinating trivia: Blessings usually are performed by someone in a dragon costume, but in Singapore it's a lion. Why? Because the island's original name was Singapura, which means lion city. Possibly a merlion?

Appeasing the gods

Sincere Year of the Rabbit offering.

Last weekend was Chinese New Year and like most expats we got out of town. We landed at a beach resort on Pulau Penang, an island off the northwest coast of peninsular Malaysia. As Margaret's first non-work trip since arriving in August, the focus was on spa treatments and umbrella drinks, not so much sight-seeing. This picture was taken at one of the many, many, many temples in and around the city of Georgetown, once the dominant trading center in these parts until Singapore big-footed the region. 

This young woman was making an offering of oranges and flowers, two traditional New Year's gifts. The ritual was lost on me, but it was out of the ordinary. Everyone else just lit candles and donated cash. However, you don't need a temple to appease the gods. I was on my way to the grocery store when we got home and I came upon this shrine on our street -- a street that's been torn up for months by utility workers.

Makeshift Year of the Rabbit offering, but surely no less sincere.

My guess is whoever left this roadside attraction, complete with candles, oranges, smoking joss sticks and smoldering paper was praying for a safe and, more importantly, swift completion of this seemingly endless task.