Chinese New Year
By Christopher Tait

The Chinese New Year in 2008 falls on the 7 th February 2008 and it will be the start of the Year of the Rat.

Chinese New Year starts on the first day of the first Luna month of the year and ends 15 days later concluding with the Lantern Festivals. The New Year is full of celebrations and time to spend with friends and family.

The year of the Rat is the again the beginning of the 12 year cycle of animals that are used to symbolise the year and each brings a different meaning to the year. The Rat symbolises protection and also material prosperity. The Rat is also associated with wealth and charm but also as much with death and war.

During the New Year period Chinese visit friends and family and new clothes are worn to mark the special occasion. Red is a important colour at this time of the year and red decorations are used. Red packets are also given to children that traditionally carry money and more often or not this adds up to £8 or $8 as this is a lucky number in China . Never 4 though as this symbolises death or an odd number as this odd number values are used at funerals. But odd numbers are worked out by the first number and not the last number. Hence 30 or 50 are classed as odd numbers.

Fireworks are let off a lot during the New Year celebrations as these are seen to drive away evil spirits. Traditional Chinese firecrackers are pretty much banned in most places now but they had humble origins. They started life as black powder in bamboo shoots that were then set alight.

The most common site for people not used to the Chinese New Year will be the Lantern Festival where the lanterns are all shapes and sizes. Again the red and gold colours are used a lot to bring in good luck and fortune to the bearer of the lantern. You will also see the Dragon Dance with the beating of the drums and the large dragon. These again are there to scare away the evil and bad spirits. Dragon Dances are also used throughout the year to bring prosperity and are quite often used when a new venture is being put forward. For example the opening of a new business.

We would like to wish all our readers that celebrate the Chinese New Year a very Happy New year and we hope the year of the Rat brings you much prosperity.

Animal	Date	Watch the latest videos on YouTube.com
Rat	February 7, 2008
Ox	January 26, 2009
Tiger	February 14, 2010
Rabbit	February 3, 2011
Dragon	January 23, 2012
Snake	February 10, 2013
Horse	January 31, 2014
Sheep	February 19, 2015
Monkey	February 8, 2016
Rooster	January 28, 2017
Dog	February 16, 2018
Pig	February 5, 2019