Why I Think Celebrating the Lunar New Year Isn't Inherently Wrong

I remembered the time I was newly saved and I wanted to start dissociating myself with almost everything that had pagan origins. Aside from the Lunar New Year, I wanted to stop celebrating Christmas and Easter because of the supposed pagan origins. I thought that celebrating the Lunar New Year should just be outright condemned because it was the time to see the Feng Shui master, it was time to engage in astrology, worship of pagan gods and goddesses were associated with the holiday, the use of the Chinese version of the Babylonian zodiac and these are all pagan superstition. The pagan religion of Babylon ended up getting into a mess as one country after the other. Just check different mythologies and you'll find out how contradictory one myth is against the other. 

It's a pretty tricky question to ask, "Should Chinese Christians be allowed to celebrate the Lunar New Year or not?" It does sound tricky but lately, Chinese New Year is just a cultural observance and nothing more. Many things today have a pagan origin. The days of the week are named after pagan Norse gods like Thursday (Thor) and Wednesday (Wotan, Odin). The calendar everyone uses today regardless of religion is named after Pope Gregory XIII or that the printing press was invented by Johannes Guttenberg a Roman Catholic. Many scientific principles such as the Hippocratic oath and the Pythagorean theorem were invented by polytheists. Many people still practice some form of Confucian ethics and Confucius was a pagan. So why are they opposing the celebration of the Lunar New Year as pagan even if it's just a cultural and not necessarily a religious event?

I would not dare deny the celebration of the Lunar New Year does have its pagan origins like Christmas. The fifteen day cycle involves worshiping idols and doing superstitious rituals. There's superstition involved such as wearing red to repel a demon named Nian. Others go to pagan temples to pray to specific idols. But the Chinese New Year has become but another cultural observance that doesn't necessarily link itself with Taoism or Buddhism. The welcoming of the Chinese New Year is welcoming what would be considered as the first day of the Chinese New Year. There would be nothing wrong with having a Lunar New Year's eve dinner and get together with the family on such an occasion. There's nothing wrong with giving money to children inside red envelopes or host a dinner for such occasion. What would be wrong are activities like going to the pagan temples on the eve of the Lunar New Year to pray to the pagan gods and goddesses. It wouldn't be wrong for Christians to get together on the Lunar New Year for bonding time provided that they divorce paganism and superstition. A get together serving Chinese food and saying grace before meals is not wrong. What would be wrong is when a church lets its members dress up as occult figures on Halloween or to participate or to endorse any form of idolatrous feasts.

Unfortunately many people make the same mistake Alexander Hislop did in writing "The Two Babylons" without doing much research. Please take note that paganism also copied from the Bible like how Adonis' basket story was copied from Moses' account, the sun god is a counterfeit of the Sun of Righteousness and many pagan messiahs were born of virgins such as Hercules who's also partly based on Samson. The argument would be, "But the use of a lunisolar means you're worshiping the pagan moon god Allah or Hubal!" is just as invalid as saying, "Well, the Gregorian calendar is a solar calendar therefore you're worshiping the pagan sun god Mithra and the fact that a Pope made it makes it also wrong to use it!" Did you know that the Jews in the Old Testament used a lunisolar calendar? Did you know that the pomegranates used by pagan high priests were also in the attire of the Jewish high priest? Did you know that the priests of the Old Testament wore a miter? That's just among a few stuff that puts Hislop's analogy to shame. 

Whether or not a Chinese Christian wants to celebrate the Lunar New Year (minus the paganism) is up to them. I don't condemn Chinese Christians who celebrate it without the superstitious rituals associated with it. If you're planning to celebrate the Lunar New Year tomorrow then do so. But here's just a reminder for Chinese Christians to keep in mind:

1 Corinthians 10:31 

Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.

Just ask yourself would eating traditional Lunar New Year meals with friends and relatives be wrong? No. Would going to Feng Shui masters and to any kind of pagan temple for the New Year wrong? Absolutely! Just make sure your celebration of the Lunar New Year doesn't do anything contrary to the Word of God.