West meets East: greet any new year right with cleaning and color

Our Western calendar has already begun.  On February 3rd this year, the Chinese New Year will welcome the Year of the Metal Rabbit.  Even though I celebrate the new year on December 31st, I have always included a very traditional Eastern idea – cleaning house.

The Chinese believe cleaning before the new year sweeps out the bad luck from the old year.  In Feng Shui, de-cluttering and correctly placing furniture and objects unblocks the ch’i energy in your home.
I clean because I’m telling the universe I am willing to work on my inner house.  All the ugliness and clutter that does not work for me are washed away and forcibly evicted from its haphazard placement in my life.  On January 1st my home is a visual reminder of a fresh beginning.

Green is the color for the Rabbit.  Metal's color is white.  I have white flowers with green foliage in my home this new year.  On New Year’s Eve, I light a white candle and have fresh flowers in the house to symbolize the simple elegant beauty I wanted to embrace.  White cleanses the mind and opens me up to the innocent newness of the year to come and, hopefully, to the enlightenment I seek.

My third-grader is learning about light and color in science.  White light from the sun seems colorless but in actuality is all the colors of the rainbow combined.  So a white object, like my white candle, would be reflecting all the colors equally and does not absorb any color.  My five-year-old daughter has always said her favorite color is rainbow.  I guess my choice of white means rainbow is my favorite color, too.

A new year encourages me to stop and really look at my life.  If it’s been awhile since I’ve last looked, I might see a dusty, disorganized mess of muddled, muted colors.   What I want to see on the morning of a new year is a clean slate with everything I need neatly waiting and perfectly placed --  in all the vibrant colors of the rainbow.   Happy New Year!!!

~ Annette Rene