Welcome To The Lunar New Year!
What is it, what does it mean? Present history has the origin of the Chinese Lunar New Year beginning at around 1600BC. China's Lunar New Year is known as the Spring Festival or Chūnjié in Mandarin, though other Asian counties also celebrate it: Koreans call it Seollal and Vietnamese refer to it as Tết. Tied specifically to the lunar calendar, the holiday began as a time for feasting and to honor household and heavenly deities, as well as ancestors. Some of the myth surrounding the celebration suggest that the origins are steeped in legend. One such legend is that thousands of years ago a monster named Nian (“Year”) would attack villagers at the beginning of each new year. It was discovered that this monster was afraid of loud noises, bright lights, and the color red, so those things were used to chase the beast away.
A lunar calendar is a year based on what are called synodic months, or full cycles of the Moon’s phases. 12 of these cycles is, of course, the full lunar year. Today the lunar calendar is mostly adhered to by religions.
The only mythical animal in all of the Chinese zodiac, the Dragon represents Imperial power and authority. For the purposes of its symbolization, the dragon represents good luck, strength, health and also the male element Yang. The characteristics of those born under this sign are said to be charismatic, intelligent, confident, powerful and they are naturally lucky and gifted. In everything that they do, they tend to do it to the best of their ability with high standards.
