Nederland celebrates Chinese style

Barbara Lawlor

02/22/2007 - On Sunday, some Nederland residents enjoyed a Chinese pot-luck dinner and celebrated the beginning of the Year of the Pig. They said goodbye to the Year of the Dog.

  It is said that the pig year will bring epidemics, disasters and violence in the world, that it is not a peaceful time.

  It is also said, in Chinese astrology, that people born in these years are honest, hardworking and loyal, that children born in the Year of the Pig will have the support of many in their lifetime.

  On Sunday, in Nederland, all was peaceful and pleasant as residents greeted the Year of the Pig. Sifu James Churches welcomed the New Year’s revelers and introduced Natalea Cohen who played a traditional Chinese tune on the Gu Zheng, which sounds similar to a harp, while her sister danced.

  Tana Cohen, Natalea’s mother, says she and her adopted Chinese children had been attending parties and celebrations in Boulder and Denver for the past couple of days.

  After a tai chi demonstration Churches presented students Ed and Sheila Ranegar with their official ‘long form’ jackets after graduating from the student phase.

  “This is a rite of passage,” said Sheila, “We can now enter the temple, we are no longer on the outside.”

  Churches admitted that he was born in a pig year, which occur every 12 years, 1959, 1971, 1983, 1995, 2007.

  “Last year was a dog. It was a good year to prepare, but this is the year to make things happen, bring things to fruition. But it could also be a volatile year.”

  Doug Radante said that after the New Year there is traditionally a two-week celebration that has been compressed into three busy days. He said all efforts are magnified 100,000 times in these two weeks.

  Churches introduced the Circle of Energy, having the group gather in all their energy, pulsating with love and hope for the earth. The spread this energy over them out into the world and over the world.

  And then, with the last egg roll devoured and energy dispersed, the group went into the crisp night air to watch the firecrackers scare away last year’s dog.