Lucky Bamboo

I’m starting to settle down at my job, and I’ve been bringing things from home to decorate my desk. Last week I brought in some lucky bamboo to add some green to my work space.

Some interesting facts I learned after bringing lucky bamboo to work:

– Lucky bamboo (Scientific name Dracaena braunii) isn’t actually bamboo at all. It’s actually a member of the lily family.
– It’s actually not native to Asia but is popular because it’s popular in feng shui.
– Having three stalks symbolizes happiness, five is for wealth, and six is for health. Four is avoided because it sounds like death in Chinese.
– Trees in general are considered to be ‘yin’ in feng shui, and in order to balance out the energy, a red ribbon needs to accompany the plant to bring in ‘yang’ energy. (I didn’t have any red the first day, and a coworker noticed and told me about this feng shui business. A lot of people in Taiwan believe in it! I brought one from home the next day, otherwise she would’ve tied one on for me).

After doing some research on feng shui, I realized that it’s not random, and yin and yang actually has some truth behind it. Basically, it talks about balancing out yin and yang. Yin symbolizes the female, and yang the male. I feel like it’s based on your own feelings. If you have something that’s really soft and cool and relaxes you, that is yin. Like a tree. If you have something hot and full of energy, then that is yang. Like the colour red. So having lucky bamboo in the office without any red isn’t good in terms of feng shui, because it will relax you too much and cause you to lose focus in your work. However, the addition of some red will make you more awake and cause you to feel more energetic.

Lastly, I have started to hang things on my bamboo, starting with the cute charm that JTran brought back for me from Hawaii.