Chinese New Year's Eve

Happy Chinese New Year's Eve! Tomorrow will be the first day of the year of the dog, lunar year 4704. I just bought a new planner that has a pretty large list of the world's holidays. I'll try to keep up with it and pass on a little information about each as they come. I'll take advantage of any reason for celebration. Here's a little bit about Chinese New Year.

The word for the new year's festival in Chinese is, "Guo Nian." This means to survive the monster, Nian. Nian was a monster that came down from a mountain on the first and fifteenth of every lunar month to eat people. The people decided to come together and fight instead of cowering in their homes. Out come the gongs and fireworks, which scare Nian so much he runs away. The people keep chasing him and he keeps running, until he's really tired. They then murder the monster, after he has passed out from exhaustion and live happily ever after. Chinese New Year's is therefore the people's celebration of freedom from the tyranny of a man-eating monster. That's why I love this holiday.

Right now, or a few days before today is the best time to clean your house(to clean out last year's accumulated bad luck), pay debts, cut your hair, and buy new clothes. That's a pretty good excuse to spend lots of money on your outward appearance. Doors can be decorated with vertical scrolls of Chinese characters on red paper; not only do they look good but they also keep away any evil spirits. If your dead ancestors are getting a little jealous of all this time you've invested in your outward appearance and decoration of your home, then burn a little incense to keep them happy. Mine like Fred Soll's Egyptian musk.

On Chinese New Year's Eve, today, light you house brightly. For dinner get the family together and have a large meal, gorging yourself is always my favorite holiday activity. New Year's Eve falls on the last day of the last moon, the coldest winter day.

Tomorrow morning is New Year's Day. If you have children, give them a red envelope full of luck money when the wake up. Red is the color of luck and is also my favorite color. Use red anywhere you can on this day. Make up with old enemies or try to see people in a different light if you've held a grudge against them. Goodwill and reconciliation are easy to come by on this day. Avoid housework (as if I needed any excuse), you may clean away the good luck New Year's day can bring. Don't use anything sharp it could cut away the, "threads of good fortune"; I suggest buttering your bread with a spoon on this day. It is unlucky to break something on this day, so try your best not to. Most importantly, avoid any negative language. I'll have to try hard to accomplish that. You can not argue or talk about sickness or death. If you do succeed in sticking to these guidelines your supposed to have a lucky and prosperous year, so I guess it does pay off in the end.

Another holiday is just around the corner. Expect an article on a holiday I currently know absolutely nothing about on January thirty-first.