newjerseynewsroom.com

Gung Hay Fat Choy

BY BOB HOLT

NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM

Happy New Year!

No, it's not Groundhog Day again. February 3rd was the first day of the Chinese New Year 4709.

This year's holiday, the Year of the Rabbit, is a 15-day celebration that starts on the first day of the Chinese lunar month. Chinese New Year is also known as Lunar New Year or the Spring Festival. Each New Year also brings about a new animal from the Chinese Zodiac. Ahwatukee.com tells us the 12 animals of the Chinese Zodiac are: Rat, Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Sheep, Monkey, Rooster, Dog and Pig.

Preparations for the holiday begin about a month before the date of the Chinese New Year. During this time people start buying presents, decoration materials, food and clothing. A huge clean-up gets underway days before the New Year, when Chinese houses are cleaned from top to bottom. This ritual is supposed to sweep away all traces of bad luck. Doors and windowpanes are often given a new coat of paint, usually red, then decorated with paper cuts and couplets with themes such as happiness, wealth and longevity printed on them.

According to theholidayspot.com, on the eve of the New Year, traditions and rituals are very carefully observed in everything from food to clothing.

Dinner is usually a feast of seafood and dumplings, signifying different good wishes. It is customary to wear something red as this colour is meant to ward off evil spirits. But black and white are discouraged, as these are associated with mourning. At midnight, fireworks light up the sky.

On the day itself, an ancient custom called Hong Bao, meaning Red Packet, takes place, involving married couples giving children and unmarried adults money in red envelopes. Then the family begins to say greetings from door to door, first to their relatives and then to their neighbors.

Tributes are made to ancestors by burning incense and the symbolic offering of foods. As firecrackers burst in the air, evil spirits are scared away by the sound of the explosions.

And the most important Chinese saying to remember is: Gong Xi Fa Cái. Of course, we've Americanized this into Gung Hay Fat Choy. It translates into "Have a prosperous and good year."

Aside from all of the rabbit's foot jokes, it sounds like a good year ahead for those born in the Year of the Rabbit. Allvoices.com reports that people born in that year are articulate, talented, and ambitious. They are virtuous, reserved, and have excellent taste. Rabbit people are admired, trusted, and are often financially lucky. They are fond of gossip but are tactful and generally kind. Rabbit people seldom lose their temper. They would make good gamblers for they have the uncanny gift of choosing the right thing. However, they seldom gamble, as they are conservative and wise.

The Chinese New Year 2012 will begin on January 23, according to 365celebration.com, and it will be the Year of the Dragon. It never hurts to make your plans early.