This took me quite a long time before I finally came to a conclusion that if I were to spend a new year eve anywhere in the world, it would be nowhere but Kyoto, Japan, at the Chion-in Temple.
As an architect, I once saw the building sometimes ago and I was fascinated and carried away by the simplicity of the architectural design. That is why I want to experience the celebration in there where I might not understand almost what is being said In there but I will still feel the presences of everything that is being done.
I see myself getting in there before midnight, fully dressed up with what ever costumes, away from my laptop and phone. A lot of people especially families would move through the temple grounds, some alone like myself, sole with children, while others just somewhere waiting. I would do like I understood everything that is being said and follow the crowd with whatever they are doing, and to be extremely careful not to get into anyone's way. What attracts me the that feeling of being a stranger and new to the place and being able to tag along.
As the old year gubes way for the new year, the temple bell is traditionally rung for 108 times. The bell sounds in Chion-in is not just a show off of counting down the final seconds. But is is this custom and ritual of freeing oneself of all those attachments and desires that is bothering us. Seeing that alone made me fall in love with that thought of going there and standing still to hear each of the bell rings rather than shouting over music to announce another year. The feeling of experiencing some new form another culture is astonishing wonderful.
I will be there, thinking about everything I experienced from January till that moment: from my plans, to work, to the decisions I made or want to change, those who came into my life, the experience either good or bad, and people who brought a good experience into my life through their act of kindness. I would not make any dramatic new year resolution or promises to become a different person the by morning.
I would go to Chion-in Temple for the new year eve, just for that beautiful and unforgettable life time experience, to share a moment without needing to explain myself. I will definitely be in a new world without understanding the words being said, but what I will surely understand is that everyone has come around carrying a year they are ready to put down for a new one.
Thank you for reading.
