Celebrating the Chinese New Year?

I have a dilemma. Well, dilemma might seem a strong word. Anyway, read on and let me know what you think.

Here I am, an ethnic Chinese, and a Christian.

As a Christian, I don't follow horoscopes or go have my fortune told. That's because it is stated clearly in Scripture that this "not on". (You can read more about it here.) I also make a stand against yoga and marital arts. This is because they have spiritual roots and lean towards having to tap into the spiritual realm which is not of Christ. (Blogpastor did a post about this a few weeks ago which I thought garnered some good comments)

However, I do celebrate Christmas, for reasons mentioned in earlier posts, despite it being of pagan origins!

Now that the Chinese New Year is coming. Should I celebrate it? After all, I steadfastly refuse to remember my children's animal year (ox, tiger or whatever, I have no idea!) By the third or fourth month after each Chinese New Year, I would have forgotten what animal year we are supposed to be in. This is because from young I was taught that the animal you were born as dictates the person you are. That sounds a lot like believing and following the horoscope and the zodiac signs.

I don't know where this came from. Google says the site has been disabled. But isn't this a nice pic?

Yet at the same time whenever Chinese New Year comes round, I would inevitably send out sms replies to those who greet me. I would give my children the obligatory ang-pows , stuff my face with the seasonal mandarins, and decorate my house would have smatterings of red, although nothing to the scale of Christmas.

Nice pic taken from www.showchina.org

This year, I plan to give my neighbours little cupcakes like I did for Christmas. The icing decoration would of course be Chinese New Year symbols such as the lantern, the mandarin and the cherry blossom.

Am I being a hypocrite? Am I being confused? Am I having an identity crisis? Or am I just embracing my cultural, ethnic origins without the spiritual trappings?

While deliberating your reply/comment, take some time out to feed my fish... then you might want to go over here to learn what you can do with a mandarin orange!