I was familiar with the concept of the Chinese New Year, but I’ve never been interested in it before.Since I am in the UK now for 1.5 years, I am living in harmony with different cultures here. When yesterday I saw the door ornament of my neighbor, I notice that February 1 is the Chinese new year.
Then I noticed that I am not familiar with their culture as much as their cuisine. I learned that they are celebrating the new year according to the moon calendar and they consider this day as the day on which winter finishes and spring begins. In Chinese culture, years are named by animals, specifically there are 12 chosen animals for years. For example, this year is the year of Tiger.
It means that we need to wait for 12 years to live the next year of Tiger. Additionally, they used 5 elements to subgroup each animal year; wood, fire, earth, metal, and water. Altogether we get a complicated chart where we can have each specific year only once every sixty years.
I guess the 60th years birthday should be very important in Chinese culture since you’re completing your big circle for the first and the only time in your life. For now, it seems impossible to celebrate the second one. If you’re interested to learn about your year of birth in the Chinese Calendar, you can check the chart above and find it.
I think that It feels a little bit weird to be in the same horoscope with all people who had born in the the same year as you.
Just before finishing, additional information about Chinese people in their celebration of the new year: They have some superstitions which are totally logical in my opinion, except for the last one.
1- They avoid taking any medicine on the first day of the year, since they may stay ill for the whole year.
2- They avoid taking out the rubbish, as this symbolizes dumping out a good fortune from the house.
3- They avoid eating porridge for breakfast as it is seen as something that poor people eat, and is a bad omen. ( I am a little bit frustrated now, since I had a perfect porridge this morning for the first time after a long while...)