HAPPY LUNAR NEW YEAR!

It is the year of the metal rat! Not that the rat is metal, but along with the twelve astrological animals that rotate through the years, there are five elements rotating along side them, like a giant cypher wheel with combinations to cover a life time.

The five elements are fire, wood, water, metal and earth.

Things I have learned or relearned about the lunar new year :

It is also called Spring Festival.

It's not just the Chinese new year. It's celebrated in many countries that have Chinese diaspora, by approximately 1/6th of the world.




It is celebrated in red, scaring away the mythical beast Nian, who terrorized a village every New Year. Fireworks help keep it away also.

Travel to family for the holidays should happen before the new year. The reunion dinner is a big feast to commemorate the past year.

The most common greeting is Guo Nian Hao, meaning passing a year (and the monster!)

Kids get red envelopes with money as gifts.

Everyone is one year older, giving kids more independence than the year before. Birthday's are less important than passing the new year. (Like Go in Monopoly?!)

Sweeping on the couple days is superstitious to sweep away good fortune.

It begins on the new moon between January and February.

It lasts for 15 days.

It ends with the lantern festival.

It has many symbols, like dumplings that resemble an original currency called yuanbao, a boat-shaped gold or silver coin used as currency in China before 1900 — a symbol of prosperity.



Do not cut them or you risk death!

Other gifts to avoid:
sharp stuff in general (cut off relationships)
clocks (end of life)
umbrellas (separate)
mirrors (fragile)
pears (separate)
chrysanthemum (funerals)
shoes (evil)
wallet (sends your fortune away)
belt, tie, underwear (too intimate)
white hats/clothes (death)
green hats/clothes (disloyalty)

For more taboos:

It is decorated in poetry.

Homony is common with the word "tangerine" sounding like the work for "luck", "fish" for "abundance", "nian gao"/rice cake for "higher year.

Many (my friend Shaden included) past the character "fu" (good fortune) on the door upside down because "upside down" is similar to "arrive", and this symbolizes the arrival of good luck.

There is a televised four hour long gala that has seven times more viewers than the Super Bowl.
Numbers should be even, avoiding number four, which sounds similar to the word "death".

New clothes are in order.

Cute rat craft with origami.