Time gallops! (or rocks)

[heliopausa]

Just by accident, a second post in a row about calendars - or triggered by calendars, anyway.  :) 
It's very, very nearly New Year here, the Lunar New Year, celebrated in China, Viet Nam, Tibet, Japan, Korea.... and of course in many other countries, depending whose ancestors moved where.  The streets here have been full of cumquat trees for sale, and pink peach blossom, and yellow maibossom, and especially of gifts to give everybody - business, friends or family.  Huge travelings are happening everywhere, with people travelling to see family, especially, if they can, in the home village.  Businesses are shutting down, government offices will close down and seal up next week.  I expect this weekend the streets will start to empty.

I guess most of you already know that the coming year is Year of the Wood Horse.  :)  (Hence the "gallops or rocks" in the subject-line) !  I love there being a big cycle of sixty years, though I am (as a not-Asian Australian) very ignorant of what each year might mean.  I'll have to find out - how is the Wood Horse Year different from other Horse Years? 

Comments

[redsnake05]

Spring Festival is always fun - I hope you have heaps of delicious dumplings! I don't much about the years, except that I am a Fire Snake, which apparently makes me seductive, dangerous and mysterious. I would like that to be true.

[heliopausa]

Oh, yes! to how satisfying it would be to be seductive, dangerous and mysterious - and also to how good dunpings are. I will search some out; it's been too long since I've had a dumpling rampage. The last time was in Sydney, for solar New Year, about two years ago, which is far too long! Thank you for the nudge. :)

[autumnia]

You know, I've never heard of Wood Horse before and had to look it up. To be honestly, I've never heard of the Lunar New Year being referred to with an elemental sign. Interesting... I'll have to ask my parents about this and see if they've ever mentioned it before.

Like redsnake05, I'm a Fire Snake as well.

In my local Chinatowns, the vendors are already selling decorations, etc. to ring in the year. The only problem is that with all this chilly weather, no one's really in the mood to spend a lot of time outdoors shopping!

[heliopausa]

I am envious of you both being seductive and mysterious, and having dragons of any sort as your totem, let alone fire ones!
If you do ask your parents, I'd love to learn more about the different elements and the years - for instance, do they follow all together, like twelve Fire Years in a row? Or do they follow a different pattern? And yes, I can imagine it feels a bit early for a spring festival in lots of places round North America - more of a promise of spring coming eventually. :D

[philippos42]

Apparently there is a Yang Wood year beginning now, and the next year will be Yin Wood. So two of an "Element" (though I think they're really "Phases") in a row.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_astrology

I could not have told you there were two in a row, but I knew how to look it up.

[autumnia]

So I asked my parents and they didn't really give me a response about it. I don't think they really knew about it either -- from my own upbringing and listening to some Chinese tv and radio shows, they don't announce the year with an element. It's always just been "Year of the [Animal]", never with an element in the name.

[heliopausa]

Thanks for investigating! In Viet Nam,they refer to the year two ways, by Roman numeral (2014) but also (in New Year posters and so on) by name, Giáp Ngọ (but that's from memory, so I may have the vowels wrong). I suppose that devout Buddhists might also use the Buddhist calendar? But I haven't heard or seen that, though I've seen posters celebrating Buddha's birthday.
(I've also met one Chinese-Vietnamese woman, not so very old - in her sixies? maximum seventies - who referred to years in dynasty terms, when she was telling me her family history.)

[philippos42]

It floats on water, I believe.

[heliopausa]

Really? Or you're joking? I mean - is that really some lore you've come across, or a suggestion you think is fun to consider? :) (Which I can see it would be - a Horse which could cross water would be very strategically powerful.)

[philippos42]

I was kind of joking. Technically, the Wood phase arises from the Water phase. I don't know much about it.

Here's Wikipedia's page on the Wu Xing, or Five Phases:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wu_Xing