Chinese New Year

Well, the inauguration this week has gotten me thinking back on all those New Year's resolutions I made and my hopes for the new year. Change is in the air. So I think it's only fitting to cover the Chinese New Year, which falls this year on January 26th.

Also called Lunar New Year or Spring Festival, the holiday marks the beginning of spring and rebirth of earth. And with all this chilly weather--okay, downright frigid at times--who couldn't use a hint of spring "early?"

Based on the lunar calendar, the holiday falls on a different day every year, somewhere between January 20th and February 19th, and runs in 12-year cycles, based on the animals of the zodiac. This new year rings in the year of the ox.

The Chinese words for New Year equal "spring festival." The holiday stresses the importance of family and honoring ancestors, as well as spring cleaning. New Year's Eve entails cleaning the house from top to bottom, literally sweeping out both the old and the evil.

After the spring sweeping, people bid farewell to the Kitchen God--the god who presides over the home and reports back to heaven on the family's behavior--who then returns on New Year's Day.

Late on New Year's Eve a family dinner is held, followed by fireworks. Gifts are exchanged the next morning between family and friends. The rest of the celebration is spent visiting with friends and wishing them luck in the new year.

The holiday is rife with symbolism. For dinner, seafood is served, all with hints of abundance and good fortune for the new year. Favorite colors are red (happiness) and gold (wealth). And of course there are the parades, with dragon dances. The dragon symbolizes strength, goodness, good luck, and supernatural forces.

Hints of our Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year's, Easter, and solstice traditions abound, proving that the world really is a small place, and we are all more alike than different.

So, I wish you a very happy Lunar New Year. May the coming year bring you happiness and wealth--in every sense of the word. Because wealth includes much more than money; it includes all the true riches celebrated by the Chinese New Year--health, family, abundance in all aspects of life.

So, out with the old, in with the new. Stay open to abundance and joy.

Want more info on Chinese New Year? Here are some links:

Chinese New Year

Chinatown-Online

About.com

wikipedia.com