Are you a Fire Rooster? Happy Chinese New Year!
Date Posted: 27/01/2017
Chinese New Year is upon us, for fun I thought I would share a few facts and traditions.
This year, New Year falls on Saturday (Jan. 28) and it’s the year of the ROOSTER! So if you or a family member or friends were born in any of the following years: 1921, 1933, 1945, 1957, 1969, 1981, 1993, 2005, 2017 you are most likely a rooster (unless they were born earlier in that same year (aka early January) before the New Year came in). You can read more about the year of the rooster here: http://www.chinahighlights.com/travelguide/chinese-zodiac/rooster.html
So to complicate yourself with more information about Chinese zodiacs, there is something called the Five Elements Theory. The five elements are wood, fire, earth, metal, and water. To summarize the philosophy, it’s used for describing the interactions and relationships between things. It doesn’t just associate with the zodiacs but many things; too much to tell you all so here is a website if you would like to learn more about it. http://www.chinahighlights.com/travelguide/chinese-zodiac/china-five-elements-philosophy.html. This year is the year of the fire rooster.
Here are some traditions that you could follow to help bring about good luck in the new year:
1) Wear some red Friday and Saturday! It will help bring you good fortune and health. The redder the better.
2) Put away those brooms and mops (Friday night). There is to be no cleaning of the floors because you don’t want to sweep away all the luck that the new year will bring in!
3) Take a shower/bath on Friday because again you don’t want to clean away all the luck!
4) When coming into work and back home Friday, it’s always suggested to take a different route than your normal, and complete a full circle in doing so. This is to draw a new perimeter around the places you will be most of the year and also blesses the people and the places around with good fortune, luck, and health.
5) If you have some fruit, like apples or oranges, take them out of the fridge and place them on a plate and place them in a central place in the house. It’s an offering to the powers above (whomever that may be for your religion or not)
6) The last tradition is always the flower arrangement. The traditional staple flowers are gladiolus and pussy willows but really any flowers that aren’t bulb flowers.
Wishing you all great happiness, good health, and prosperity in the (lunar) new year.
- Lisa
87 Broadway, Orangeville ON, L9W 1K1