Chinese new year comes from the tradition of Chinese people. Every new year, they thank to God for the harvest result before and hope that they will get a better result in the next harvest season.
In West Borneo, Chinese people express their thankfulness with a lot of fireworks all-day long. They visit their relatives and give 'ang pao' for their nephews or children. Ang pao is a red envelope that contain with some amount of money.
Chinese new year celebrated in 15 days. on the 15th day, there is a special event held by the chinese people. The event is called 'Cap Go Meh'. They celebrate this last day in a different way than the days before.
Chinese people believe with Cap Go Meh, they can avoid unlucky things that will come in the future. To expel evil spirit and negation of unlucky things, it is symbolized with tatung shows. Tatung is the people who possesed by spirit. When they are posses, they usually do some attraction which is full of mystical things and tighten situation.
In the attraction of tatung that is possesed by spirit of the death people, they are acting weird and out of ordinary. Some of them can step-on a sharp sword or knife, some of them can implant steel wire into their right cheek breakthrough the left cheek. Surprisingly, there are no injury or scratches left on their bodies.
The ceremony to call spirits is lead by priest, which is deliberate to call the spirits. They are believe that the spirits are the heroic people in Chinese legend, so the spirits could defeat the evil spirits that will disturb the harmony of the citizen life. The spirit which is called could posses anyone. It depends on the people, are they fulfill the requirements in the step of become tatung which is determined by the priest. or not.
There are also dragon and lion dance parade on that day. They all usually perform at the same place. A lot of people come to see their performance, not only the Chinese, but also Dayaknese, Malay, or even tourist from the western. Cap Go Meh is the center of attention on that day. Because this is just once in a year event and its unforgetable.
There are also dragon and lion dance parade on that day. They all usually perform at the same place. A lot of people come to see their performance, not only the Chinese, but also Dayaknese, Malay, or even tourist from the western. Cap Go Meh is the center of attention on that day. Because this is just once in a year event and its unforgetable.
*original writing
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