Year of The Rat
Posted on February 7, 2008 by Yael
February 7th marks the beginning of the year of the Rat.
The celebrations in China are quite inspiring, so I’m told, with lots of fire works, colors, and since we have a rat in our hands- Mickey Mouse is everywhere.
Maybe someone should tell them Mickey is a Mouse (hence the name) and not a rat?
Then again, why spoil the celebrations?
In addition to the fire works- which are meant to make everyone happy, banish demons and get the attention of the gods, the Chinese welcome the new year with their family and loved ones, and of course- food. How can one survive a family re-union without food? Different traditional foods have different meanings- melon with sugar for health and maturity and so on.
As colorful as the celebrations are, the main color is red which means good luck in Chinese culture. Red dominates the cloths people wear, the envelopes in which they get the new year’s bonus at work, calligraphy work that is hanging outside the doors and windows and so on. The traditional dragon and lion dance is spotted everywhere, in pure carnival spirit, and since the new year is also the celebration of spring there’s an even greater sense of tradition and ethnic identity in the celebrations.
That ends, but this is only the beginning of 15 days of festival and each day symbolizes something else, for example- the 2nd day is dedicated to the in-laws, this is the day where one visits his in-laws to show them respect. There are more days like these, until the 15th day, which is the festival of lanterns, which is supposed to be a beautiful sight.
There are five cycles of twelve years, and we all know Chinese philosophy is everywhere, so we also have the 5 elements (phases) and the 12 animals.
Each year is symbolized by an animal and an element. This year is the year of the Earth-Rat. I will not bore you with the astrology details, you can find the information with a quick click of your mouse, but one should remember that we should take into account not just the year, but also the month, the day and the hour before we start to analyze our patients or our own character according to Chinese philosophy.
08.08.2008 at 20:08 marks the beginning of the Beijing Olympic Games.
The choice was not left to chance, and we all know that China wants to prove their abilities in every possible way. The choice of the government of China to host the Olympic games on this year- the year of the Earth-Rat, and the choice of so many 8′s was carefully done, as 8 is a very powerful number.
As I was searching the web for something different to offer you, I stumbled upon a children’s book about The Year of The Rat.
The last thing I want to add is this link, to the true mouse hero of my childhood, mainly because I didn’t really care for the mouse mentioned above. I was more a Donald Duck fan myself.
Have a good year of the rat everyone!
Categories: General notes
[...] of the Ox Earth year. Alas, baby Asia was in a rush to be born on the very last day of the year of the Rat. I say in a rush, because her due day was February 5th. Do you think this means anything [...]