Lunar New Year's Day

[sather]

Today was New Year's day according to lunar calender and it's a great holiday in many of Asian countries. I know some people call it Chinese New year's day but I'd prefer lunar New Year's day. I went to see my grandma and other relatives and enjoyed holiday food.
So I just wanted to say

Happy New Year !!! (again )

 

[iluvtodd]

Gung Hai Fat Choy (in the year of the snake)! Happy Tet for the Vietnamese people, and Happy Lunar New Year's Day for all who celebrate!

 

[Olympia]

Happy New Year! I'm a great believer in celebrating all the new years around the year: we all need as many fresh starts as we can get.

May all who mark the start of the year this weekend have a happy, healthy, prosperous year.

 

[dorispulaski]

Happy New Year to All (and to all, a good night )

 

[heyang]

At work, we of Asian ancestry have put out food in our department to celebrate the New Year at work - although technically, we shouldn't be working!

Here's some of the info we went out this year:

To determine your Chinese Horoscope, check this site. If your birthday is in Jan-Feb, you cannot rely on the year alone.
http://www.chinesezodiac.com/calculator.php


Some info on traditions:
http://kaleidoscope.cultural-china.com/en/8Kaleidoscope6106.html
http://www.123chinesenewyear.com/traditions/
http://www.history.com/topics/chinese-new-year-traditions-and-symbols

Here are a couple of additional ‘no-no’s:
• Do not sweep dirt out of your home on Chinese New Year’s Day. You are sweeping out the good luck.
• Do not vertically insert your chopsticks into a bowl of rice. Chopsticks standing straight up represent death. At a Chinese wake, rice will be offered to the one who passed away and to the gods. The chopsticks will stand straight up in the bowl of rice. Some say that this represents a headstone. This one is true all year.
• Never wrap a gift in white paper unless you embellish with red or pink ribbon. White is associated with death. Red and gold are associated with happiness and wealth.
• This link indicates items that should not be given as gifts. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faux_pas_derived_from_Chinese_pronunciation

 

[Olympia]

Thanks, Heyang! That's fascinating. And as a bonus, you've just made me feel good that I put off vacuuming yesterday and today. The good luck is still in the corners of my apt.

It's interesting about white being the color of death in Chinese tradition. Someone once pointed out that during the Russian Civil War in 1918, the Imperial Russians (also known as the White Russians) made a huge mistake taking white as their symbolic color for the same reason. Meanwhile the Bolsheviks took the color red. I think the same word (or a variation of it) means "red" and "beautiful" in Russian.

I'm glad you guys had a feast at work. A nice way to celebrate. I'm grateful that GS'ers reminded me that the day was New Year's, because I came in the apt. building at the same time as my neighbor and had the presence of mind to wish her happy New Year. I forgot the Grammy Awards last night (was doing homework) but remembered the important day.

 

[Mrs. P]

Chuc Mung Nam Moi! is Happy New Year in Vietnamese.

I'm getting to the age now where I need to give out li xi (lucky money) to my nieces and nephews, my parents still send money to my husband and I.

Sadly, my great uncle died last week and my family actually rushed to get the funeral on Saturday because they did not want to start the Lunar New Year on such a sad note.

Also, my husband is a snake, so it is his year! I'm a dog.

 

[dorispulaski]

I'm a Fire Pig it figures.

My husband is a Water Goat.

 

[ManyCairns]

My husband is a fire pig/boar, too, Doris -- does that mean you would be compatible, or quite the reverse? I'm a Fire Horse, and the two of us SHOULDN'T be particularly compatible, according to someone who did our Chinese horoscope when we were dating. That was in 1998, so ...

 

[Olympia]

To paraphrase Shakespeare, the virtue lies not in our stars but in ourselves.

In Western horoscopes, I once told someone my sign, and she quipped (knowing my personality), "Your mother lied to you."

 

[ice coverage]

Patrick Chan ‏@Pchiddy

Happy Chinese New Year. May the year of the snake bring you lots of luck and good fortune! http://instagr.am/p/V1veRZR1x1/
9:02 AM - 17 Feb 13
https://twitter.com/Pchiddy/statuses/303187741447958528
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