Gong Xi Fa Cai! This year’s Lunar New Year was different for the devoted Buddhists. Due to Covid-19, the Kwan Im Thong Hood Cho Temple at Waterloo Street was closed early on the eve of Chinese New Year – no more race to be the first to put the incense sticks inside the burner right after midnight to get the best of luck in the coming year.
The answers behind Chinese fortune sticks When I was relocated to Singapore in 1998, a girlfriend introduced me to this oldest Buddhist temple. She showed me how to use the bamboo fortune sticks to ask Guan Yin or the Goddess of Mercy questions about health, career, family and relationship. The fortune sticks stored in a holder were numbered 1 to 100. The number could imply an excellent, good, fair, bad or worst fate. According to the number of the fortune stick you picked, the...