Locals mark Chinese Lunar New Year
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- February
- 12
Locals of Asian descent were this weekend celebrating the Chinese Lunar New Year of the Rat, which was on Thursday.
The Chinese New Year is a festive occasion. Key parts of the celebration include the eating of fish for luck and dumplings for prosperity. Adults give their children red envelopes containing lucky money.
Like the Western calendar, the Chinese lunar calendar is a yearly one, but its start is based on the moon’s cycles. The beginning of the year can fall anywhere between late January and the middle of February. A complete cycle takes 60 years and is made up of five cycles of 12 years each.
The lunar calendar names each of the 12 years after an animal.
Legend has it that Buddha summoned all the animals to come to him before he left the Earth. Only 12 animals bade him farewell, and as a reward, he named a year after each one in the order in which they arrived.
The Chinese believe the animal ruling the year in which a person is born has a profound influence on that person’s character.
In addition to the rat, other animals in the cycle are the pig (also known as the boar), ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, sheep, monkey, dog and rooster.
This entry was posted
on Tuesday, February 12th, 2008 at 4:24 pm by Suzan Clarke.
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Kung Hay Fat Choy
(wishing someone prosperity) .. Basically happy new year..