In China, Lunar New Year is known as 春节 or chun jie* and this year the festival continues to 17th Feb, with further celebrations until later in the month. This is also the start of the Year of the Ox. Ancient Chinese astronomers created a system of 12 year cycles, based on observations of the time it roughly takes Jupiter to travel around the Sun. 12 animals represent each Earth year - called the Earthly Branches - within that cycle. The Celestial Stems are 5 elements - Fire, Earth, Metal, Water, and Wood - that accompany the animals in rotation and each element also gets assigned either Yin or Yang. Together these make up the Chinese Zodiac. Each pairing of Earthly Branch and Celestial Stem only comes around every 60 years. These 60 year cycles are called Sexegenary Cycles - another way of measuring chunks of years - a bit like the way the Gregorian system measures 100 year cycles. So (if you are still with me!) this Year of the Ox is specifically Metal Ox - the last Metal Ox was in 1961. Even more specifically it is Yin Metal Ox. According to one astrology site, people born in a Metal Ox year are “active and patient, clever in social matters”^ (It also says I am an “energetic, leading, stubborn” Fire Horse. Hmmm.) Alongside the amazingly complex ancient calendar systems, I’ve also been looking up± some of the many lucky New Year phrases that are shared as greetings when people meet over this period, such as 春节快乐 - Chūnjié kuàilè - which means Happy Spring Festival. My favourite is special for this year as, according to the site I found, it includes a pun: the word Niǔ has two meanings: "to turn around" and "ox". 牛转乾坤 - NiǔZhuǎn Qiǎnkūn. “Wishing you turning all bad things around, into a good brand new world.” Here’s hoping. Happy New Year #Chūnjié #LunarNewYear #MetalOx #ChineseNewYear #TheYearofYears *This is Mandarin pronunciation, as I think all these are, please let me know if I am wrong and I can correct, or if you can help me with Cantonese or other pronunciations ^http://bit.ly/3tQcBZL ±http://bit.ly/3pmdRR6 Image by RootOfAllLight shared under CC license commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Chinese_Zodiac.png (at Celestial Stem) https://www.instagram.com/p/CLQMAQMli83/?igshid=gorcuuzudpjt
