Chinese New Year 2012, the Year of the Dragon

Chinese New Year, which marks the end of the Winter season, is the most important of the traditional Chinese holidays.  Typically, families will thoroughly clean out their house to sweep away any ill-fortune in hopes of making way for incoming good luck.  According to legends, the beginning of Chinese New Year started with the fight against a mythical beast called the Nian.  ”Nian would come on the first day of New Year to eat livestock, crops, and even villagers, especially children.  To protect themselves, the villagers would put food in front of their doors at the beginning of every year.  It was believed that after the Nian ate the food they prepared, it wouldn’t attack any more people.  One time, people saw that the Nian was scared away by a little child wearing red.  The villagers then understood that the Nian was afraid of the color red.  Hence, every time when the New Year was about to come, the villagers would hang red lanterns and red spring scrolls on windows and doors.  People also used firecrackers to frighten away the Nian.  From then on, Nian never came to the village again.  The Nian was eventually captured by Hongjun Laozu, an ancient Taoist monk.  The Nian became Hongjun Laozu’s mount” (theholidayspot.com).

I learned a little knowledge from being married to an Asian man who was born in Bangkok, Thailand. He was of Chinese descent  born in the year of the Dog, I was born in the year of the Rabbit. My first thought was don’t dogs chase rabbits? Well I guess they don’t in the Chinese horoscope. He soon informed me that the Dog is a loyal creature that remains that way no matter what. Rabbits tend to be an introverted, quiet sign. That fits me perfectly. My new husband is born under the sign of the Dragon which is a very good sign to be born under.