About Lunar New Year

Also known as Chinese New Year and the Spring Festival, Lunar New Year is a two week celebration that begins on the first day of the first month of the Lunar calendar (typically in late January/mid-February) and ends on the full moon 15 days later. It celebrates the family, the earth coming back to life and the start of a new beginning and possibilities. Regarded as a major holiday in Asia, Lunar New Year is celebrated internationally in China, Japan, Korea, Vietnam, Malaysia, Singapore and in Asian communities all around the world.

Preparations for Lunar New Year start during the last few days of the last moon. Houses are thoroughly cleaned, debts repaid, hair cut and new clothes bought. Doors are decorated with vertical scrolls of characters on red paper whose texts seek good luck and praise nature. During the two-week Lunar New Year period, numerous ancient traditions are observed, ranging from flower giving to the preparation of special foods. Perhaps the most popular Lunar New Year customs in the West are lion dances and firecrackers (to ward off evil spirits) and the giving of "lucky money" in colorful red envelopes.

2005: Year of the Rooster

The Rooster is the strutting peacock of the Chinese Zodiac. These quick thinkers are practical and resourceful, preferring to stick to what is tried and true rather than taking messy, unnecessary risks. Roosters are keenly observant. It's hard to slip anything past a Rooster, since they seem to have eyes in the backs of their heads! This quality can lead others to think the Rooster is psychic. This Sign enjoys a keen attention to detail that makes it a whiz at anything requiring close analysis. Roosters make great lawyers, brain surgeons and accountants, to name a few of this Sign's possible occupations. Above all else, the Rooster is very straightforward and rewards others' honesty in kind.



Chinese New Year starts with the New Moon on the first day of the new year and ends on the full moon 15 days later. The 15th day of the new year is called the Lantern Festival, which is celebrated at night with lantern displays and children carrying lanterns in a parade.

The Chinese calendar is based on a combination of lunar and solar movements. The lunar cycle is about 29.5 days. In order to "catch up" with the solar calendar the Chinese insert an extra month once every few years (seven years out of a 19-yearcycle). This is the same as adding an extra day on leap year. This is why, according to the solar calendar, the Chinese New Year falls on a different date each year.

New Year's Eve and New Year's Day are celebrated as a family affair, a time of reunion and thanksgiving. The celebration was traditionally highlighted with a religious ceremony given in honor of Heaven and Earth, the gods of the household and the family ancestors.

The sacrifice to the ancestors, the most vital of all the rituals, united the living members with those who had passed away. Departed relatives are remembered with great respect because they were responsible for laying the foundations for the fortune and glory of the family.

The presence of the ancestors is acknowledged on New Year's Eve with a dinner arranged for them at the family banquet table. The spirits of the ancestors, together with the living, celebrate the onset of the New Year as one great community. The communal feast called "surrounding the stove" or weilu. It symbolizes family unity and honors the past and present generations.

http://www.new-year.co.uk/chinese/

My first fortune from that site (virtual fortune cookies!!!): If you took all the students that felt asleep in class and laid them end to end, they'd be a lot more comfortable.

http://www.new-year.co.uk/chinese/calendar/rooster.htm

Yoko Ono, Rod Stewart, and Eric Clapton!

That's about it for now. Eat a fortune cookie. ^_^ *lights lantern*