“It was the worst year of my life, you know. I never been so sick before…I couldn’t breathe, I couldn’t stop coughing.”
In 2019, Ms Yue’s health was disastrous. Dengue fever, sinusitis, an on-and-off cough – illness plagued her throughout the year. Her colleague, seeing this, made an offhand comment that it might have been due to her Chinese zodiac sign clashing with Tai Sui. This comment led Ms Yue, 30, who came from a secular household, to take on an ancient Chinese belief: that her birthdate had led her to be cursed by the Gods.
According to Thian Hock Keng, one of the oldest Chinese temples in Singapore, Tai Sui refers to an intangible star that moves in the opposite direction of the planet Jupiter, which was deified in Taoist beliefs. Every year, different zodiac signs assigned by one’s birth date will come into conflict with the Tai Sui God of the year (‘Fan Tai Sui’), causing them to suffer from misfortune, hence needing to pray for peace and protection. If not, they could find themselves facing bad luck in terms of their career, relationships, health, and wealth, with the possibility of even encountering disaster. At the end of the Lunar New Year, it is also important to show gratitude to the Gods, to thank them for their blessing.
Historically, the Tai Sui star chart, which was conceived of during the Warring States period, was made as a method of time keeping, matching the 5 celestial elements to the 12 Chinese zodiac animals to make a 60-year cycle. Each yearly unit was later deified as a Tai Sui God associated with a military leader, to be used as a fortune telling device. This makes Tai Sui a social concept developed by past generations. However, belief in this practice is retained to this day, with hour-long queues around temples in Singapore by locals seeking to change their fate.
Ms Yue, discovering that the rooster will clash with Tai Sui again in 2020, decided to go to a temple to change her misfortune. However, tragedy struck, as due to being unfamiliar with the process, she actually gave her offerings and prayer to the wrong God. Clearly, she thought she must have offended the Gods immensely, because the world soon ended up being plagued by COVID-19. Plus, the bonus she was promised at work wasn’t given, with her boss blaming the pandemic despite the money being for last year’s performance. Moreover, while lightning never strikes twice, dengue fever certainly did, as she found herself hospitalised with a second bout of the disease.
By 2021, she was resolved to improve her fortune, being sincerely committed to prayer… and she found that the tides had turned. Even though her birthdate did not clash with Tai Sui that year, she decided to pray to the main deity for blessings anyway, in order to further improve her luck for the year. But, correctly this time. Lo and behold, she avoided contracting COVID-19, despite being in close contact with an airport cluster in May, and having a close encounter after a dinner with her friends who all tested positive afterwards in June. She even survived her housemates all falling prey to the disease in September. However, even Tai Sui’s blessings for her health was no match for the ever-evolving virus, and she ended up contracting the disease in October.
Now, it should be obvious that her mistaken prayer was not the cause of a worldwide pandemic. Rather than Tai Sui causing her multiple illnesses, this could have been the cause of a weak immune system that made her more vulnerable to infections. Being stuck in a toxic workplace for several years could have led to stress that implicated her health. On top of that, despite offending the Gods twice, she was scouted by a company who offered her better benefits. These events can be boiled down to confirmation bias, as there are not only better scientific explanations for her misfortunes, but also plenty of good events that happened in a year supposedly cursed by misfortune.
There’s a flipside, too. According to Tai Sui, she was supposed to be luckier in 2022, as there was no clash with the heavens – yet her health still took a turn for the worst. In March, she got infected with COVID-19 and coughed so violently she tore a muscle. Her new working environment also turned toxic, leading her to leave the place for another company. These things happened in spite of her praying fervently to the Gods to bless her with better fortune. Yet, in brighter news, when her household had yet another COVID-19 outbreak in October, she found herself unscathed.
Since praying to Tai Sui so far, from her experience, has been so unreliable, why did she still believe in it? Well, in her opinion, it allowed her to cover all her bases, ensuring that when she does encounter bad luck, she knows it was not preventable. Putting in this effort also allows her to feel reassured that the cause of these incidents was not due to her forgetting to pay respects.
“It’s also better for me to blame all the difficult things that happen on Fan Tai Sui, it makes me feel that it’s not my fault for bad things happening so I can move on,” Ms Yue told me, almost jokingly, “I also always feel more hopeful and motivated for the next year I don’t Fan Tai Sui, I have an expectation for my luck to be better.”.
While Ms Yue’s experience with Tai Sui reflected a rollercoaster of major events, her sister, 27, who works as a teacher, cemented her beliefs in this ritual due to various small incidents that impacted her daily life. She, too, had a difficult 2019, when she started working in a toxic workplace. Her boss was being particularly nit-picky, constantly finding fault with her or delegating extra tasks. She faced several cases of bad luck, including glitching projectors that affected her class plans, as well as an increased occurrence of inconveniences in her daily life. She put all this down to her zodiac having offended Tai Sui that year. When prompted for examples of these incidents, she shared with me an occurrence that she remembered clearly.
“I was walking down a sidewalk when suddenly one of my air pods had fallen out on its own onto the road. This had never happened to me before, and when it bounced to the middle of the road, a car suddenly drove past and crushed it. That road is so unpopular you know, cars really usually don’t pass by it.”
Therefore, in 2020, she followed her sister to the temple to pray to Tai Sui, feeling more reassured and safer having done so. This allowed her to meet more helpful people in her life which improved her career greatly, as she managed to form a good relationship with several senior colleagues who were known to be difficult to have a good relationship with in her workplace. When asked whether she would have been able to get along with those colleagues without the aid of Tai Sui, as she was able to adapt to their preferred working styles, she firmly stated that: “Tai Sui introduced these people into my life. I wouldn’t have been able to get these opportunities.”
In Ms Yue’s opinion: “We pray to Tai Sui because we don’t want to hit rock bottom.” Both sisters displayed the opinion that if they did not pray to Tai Sui, especially if their zodiac signs clashed with the main God of the year, they would definitely encounter bad luck. This promotes a negative mindset which could lead to a self-fulfilling prophecy, as you reinforce your own beliefs and limit your potential. However, for both sisters, they also held the opinion that they would be more ambitious in pursuing success if they knew that Tai Sui had blessed them, showing how this ritual could also be something of a motivating force for its believers.
For Ms Yue, despite clashing with Tai Sui again this year, her devotion seems to have paid off, as she is currently flourishing in her career. She had been promised a bonus and an award for her contributions to her workplace so far, and the company had planned a holiday to reward the employees. She also has an upcoming trip to Korea which she is extremely excited about. She told me her year so far has been smooth sailing, which she attributes to the influence of Tai Sui.
So, how is one meant to avoid misfortune when they find themselves clashing with Tai Sui?
Generally, this involves a ritual where one writes their name and lunar birth date on a piece of prayer paper, which must be burnt, so that the deity will know who specifically to bless. This idea provides an interesting contrast to the Western view of God as omniscient, and calls into question the knowledge of our existence to these Taoist deities. Afterall, if they do indeed exist and have divine ability, why are they unable to automatically distinguish between the prayers of their believers?
Additionally, if they need the prayer papers to be alerted to one’s presence for blessings, surely they shouldn’t be able to know who to curse each year?
The idea that burning a piece of paper will attract good fortune into your life and fix your problems while optimistic, is unrealistic. The only thing being induced by the constant burning of incense and offerings is greenhouse gases, which only serve to decrease our quality of life.
For Thian Hock Keng, one also needs to prepare a good luck red packet containing money to gift to the main Tai Sui God, the amount being a tenth of your age. This monetary amount differs depending on which temple you go to, being S$4.00 for Sheng Hong Temple, which according to Ms Yue is “the most legitimate temple to pray for Tai Sui”. When asked whether giving money to the Gods, or rather donating to the temples, was a significant part of the ritual and makes it seem more legitimate, Ms Yue paused, pondering over the question.
“Yes, I think so, after all, it feels like I am being more sincere and giving something for the blessings. The amount I pay does affect my subconscious belief.”
Her sister chimed: “When I pay the money and go through all the specific steps of praying, I do feel like the process has an impact on my life, making me feel luckier.”
For the Sembawang God of Wealth temple, the instructed monetary amount to give was much higher at S$15 per person, perhaps due to the Gods at this temple having more expensive taste. This price included a prayer package to take home that included several charms and trinkets that presumably would protect you from misfortune.
“It felt so commercialised,” my mother lamented, a victim of the S$60 price tag needed to pray for all four members of my family.
“This is a pollution of culture and faith. You should not need to buy so many charms to let the Gods feel your sincerity, all these mass-produced packets are just to make people spend more money.”
At 53, she reminisced on the previous time she prayed to Tai Sui, despite being non-religious, mostly out of curiosity over the process. She only went again this year due to the encouragement of my grandmother who was concerned over several members of my family being affected by Tai Sui.
“25 years ago, the process was so much simpler. There wasn’t a fixed price for praying or a need to give red packets to the Gods. You just needed to buy joss sticks and biscuits as offerings and pray to Tai Sui. For people who really believe in this, all that is needed is their sincerity. That is the original tradition.”
Despite praying to the same set of Gods, each temple displays different rituals, calling into question the accuracy of this tradition. Afterall, these inconsistencies show that there is no exact way to pray to the Gods, making it impossible for anyone to be certain about whether they have attained forgiveness or any blessings. A possible explanation for this confusion however could be due to the various Chinese clans passing down different traditions and beliefs to their descendants, leading to discrepancies towards the process.
Additionally, the red packets and donations given by the devotees go towards the preservation of the temples as cultural sites and funds their social activities. When I volunteered at a soup kitchen, I remember a Buddhist society donating mangoes for us to distribute to the needy, showing how the money also leads to charitable causes.
In 2020, a massive fire had broken out at the Sembawang God of Wealth temple and a massive amount of funds needed to be put into the reconstruction of the damaged site which could also explain the higher price for praying at this location. While it was stated to be “miraculous” that the five statues of deities in the temple remained unharmed despite the extensive damage, it makes one question the omnipotence of the Gods to allow for such an event to happen in the first place. Additionally, three of the seven stray dogs that were housed by the temple perished due to being unable to escape from the flames – if the Gods really did exist, in all their omnibenevolence, it’s odd that they decided to kill the dogs.
Ms Ming, 21, is a university student raised in a deeply religious family. Crystals, altars, and paintings used to respect Chinese deities or attract good fortune into her household surround us as she shares more about the experience that led her family to be so devout.
“My great-uncle accidently kicked some offerings on the side of the road, and his foot started hurting. After seeing doctors, he still couldn’t stop the hurting until he went to a temple to pray for forgiveness. His pain stopped the next day.”
She mostly follows the process out of respect for her grandmother, who brings her specially to a medium in Chinatown, who for S$18, provides a stack of prayer papers to not only address the main Tai Sui God of the year but to pray to the other Chinese deities for good fortune as well. However, should her grandmother not bring her to do so, she would not take part in this ritual. Despite being raised to believe in Tai Sui, she felt that the concept of yearly luck was too ambiguous due to the considerable time span for any event, good or bad to happen. This makes it difficult to pinpoint any particular event and attribute it to Tai Sui.
“Statistically, whether you ‘Fan Tai Sui’ or not, something bad is bound to happen to you sooner or later in a year,” She laughed, “There is nothing to prove that it exists.”
However, during the years her zodiac clashes with Tai Sui, she makes the effort to be more careful, especially in regard to making risky investments or towards her health. She shared that she would actively eat healthier and see the doctor sooner when she knows she is feeling unwell, making her more conscious about taking care of herself. This is a common viewpoint among the non-religious Singaporeans I know, who try not to actively offend the Gods. This could be due to our multi religious society that influences us to be tolerant of diverse cultures and beliefs. However, this could also showcase a subconscious wariness towards the possibility of the supernatural from the practices taught to us from young.
“While I am not superstitious, it really doesn’t hurt to be more cautious,” Ms Ming laughed, “It’s really better to be safe than sorry.”
When asked on whether she will pass this tradition onto her future children or continue these practices on her own, she shook her head somberly. According to her, the amount of paranoia towards offending the Gods, and the focus on success being determined on your birth date, causes too much stress. This mindset reflects my mother’s opinion on the religious practice, whose atheist beliefs greatly influenced my upbringing.
While repacking the prayer package to put back on display, my mother shook her head while saying: “Don’t keep waiting for the Gods to solve your problems, take action yourself. If you believe so much in Tai Sui and God to save you or keep waiting for your luck to be good, you will always be stuck in bad luck. It’ll just be an excuse. Nothing will change.”
