The Chinese New Year this year will be celebrated on January 26. We plan to take Ali to a traditional Chinese dinner and let her wear one of her Chinese silk outfits. We also will be going to see the Terracotta Warriors on exhibit and watching a traditional Chinese New Year's celebration in conjunction with this at the museum. We want her to learn much about who she is and where she came from and cherish that. Here is a link to some info about the Chinese New Year along with other Chinese traditions. I will post photos of Ali later.
Chinese Zodiac
Each Chinese New Year is linked to one of the twelve animals of the Chinese zodiac.
NOTE: Since the Chinese New Year is determined by the Lunar calendar, the last day of the Chinese New Year is not December 31st and the first day of the year is not January 1st. The New Year usually begins between January 21st and February 20th. If you have a birthday that occurs in January or February, please consult a Chinese zodiac calculator to figure out your sign.
There are endless variations of the folklore story explaining how the order of the animals of the zodiac were chosen. Below is a popular telling of tale:
When it came time for the Jade Emperor in heaven to decide the order of the zodiac, he invited all the animals to participate in a race. The order of the zodiac would be decided by the order in which animals finished the race.
When the competition started, the ox was leading the pack, but the rat jumped on his back. Since the rat was so light and small, the ox did not realize that the rat was hitching a ride. As the ox approached the finish line, the rat leap off his back and was crowned as the first animal to complete the race.
After all the creatures finished the race, the order was finalized: rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, goat, monkey, rooster, dog, and pig.
According to legend, those born in a particular year of an animal are said to possess particular character traits associated with that animal.
No comments:
Post a Comment