Happy Chinese New Year! – The Year of the Ox!

I know I’m a day late with this but Happy Lunar New Year to everyone!  Yesterday was the first day of the chinese new year.  In the Chinese zodiac each year is represented by one of twelve different animals and this year it is the year of the ox.  The ox is the second animal in the Chinese zodiac and this year is a metal year so  it is the year of the metal ox!

Why the Year of the Ox?

Every lunar year is represented by a different animal, one of the twelve in the chinese zodiac.  And every twelve years the cycle is repeated.  This year is the year of the ox, the second animal in the zodiac.  According to some legends, the Jade Emperor called the animals to a race, some say across a river.  Whichever animal came first would be the first animal of the zodiac.  The ox, being hardworking, diligent and strong was supposed to be the first animal of the zodiac, making its way steadily to the end of the race.  Along the way the kind ox agreed to help the small rat by allowing the rat to ride on its back, at least part of the way.  But the rat was sneaky and just as the ox was about to cross the finish line, the rat leapt off its back and claimed first place.  That’s why the ox is the second animal in the zodiac.

Why a metal ox?

According to the Chinese zodiac, every year is represented by an element too.  A year can be one of five elements: water, fire, wood, metal or earth.  This year is a metal year, during the year of the ox so it is called a metal ox year or some call it a golden ox year, because gold is a metal and what better metal than the beautiful, magical and lucky colour of gold!

The 60 year cycle

Having twelve different animals and five different elements to the Chinese zodiac means that the likelihood of having the same element and animal every twelve years very unlikely.  This cycle in fact takes a whole sixty years to repeat itself so when someone was last born in the year of the ox during a metal year would have been in 1961, sixty years ago, meaning whatever element and animal you were born in, you won’t see that cycle repeat until you are sixty years old! 😮

Celebrating Chinese New Year

Although every year millions of people celebrate the lunar new year by visiting family and sharing fireworks and a meal together this hasn’t been possible for many this year.  In China the migration of people during the Lunar New Year holidays is famous with so many people moving from the cities where they work and live back home to other places around the country to be with loved ones.  The migration of people around China is so well known that many spend some of the holiday days just travelling home.  But this year people haven’t been able to travel so much and along with that many of our usual public celebrations have been cancelled. 😦

Celebrating at home

Even though we can’t celebrate with parades or big firework displays, which I really do miss, we can still celebrate a meal with loved ones at home and for those that can’t be with us we are usually just a zoom call, phone call, text message or email away.  People usually celebrate by exchanging red envelopes filled with money, this is especially given to younger generations and the red colour of the envelopes is supposed to bring luck for the new year.  In fact you’ll notice that red is a very fotunate colour in China and all Chinese New Year images are usually filled with red! 🙂

Chinese Lantern Festival

The Chinese lantern festival marks the end of the new lunar year celebrations and this year will take place on the 26th of February.  This is a time that people light lanterns and set them off to float into the sky.  The lantern festival marks the first full moon night of the new year and people in China often celebrate by setting off lanterns, fireworks, guessing riddles written on papers that hang from lanters and even lion dances!

I’ve seen lion dances which have taken place through London’s China Town before and they are wonderful to watch along with the beautiful and plentiful red lanterns that I’ve seen before too. 🙂  And although all of our public celebrations for Chinese New Year have been cancelled this year, maybe next year we can enjoy the beauty and magic of the Lunar new Year!  Happy New Year everyone!

-Information from my own head (I’m good at remembering facts!) and https://www.chinahighlights.com/festivals/lantern-festival.htm

Have you ever celebrated Chinese/Lunar New Year?  What about the Year of the Ox?  Let me know what you think in the comments below.

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