Lunar New Year, Thursday, February 19, 2915

Year of the Yang

Infoplease, "Chinese New Year:  2015, the year of the sheep."

"Chinese New Year is the longest and most important celebration in the Chinese calendar. The Chinese year 4713 begins on Feb. 19, 2015. Chinese months are reckoned by the lunar calendar, with each month beginning on the darkest day. New Year festivities traditionally start on the first day of the month and continue until the fifteenth, when the moon is brightest. In China, people may take weeks of holiday from work to prepare for and celebrate the New Year.

A charming New Year.  Legend has it that in ancient times, Buddha asked all the animals to meet him on Chinese New Year. Twelve came, and Buddha named a year after each one. He announced that the people born in each animal's year would have some of that animal's personality. Those born in sheep years are often artistic, charming, sensitive, and sweet. It is known as the most creative sign in the Chinese zodiac."   Read more.

Reference -  Chinese New Year Zodiac (rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, sheep (goat), monkey, rooster, dog, pig). Personality characteristics calendar are based upon the year you were born, followed by a description.

You talking about me?

Related - New York Times/Chris Buckley, 2/18/15, "Ringing in the Lundar New Year, whatever it's called." "HONG KONG — China said goodbye to the Year of the Horse on Wednesday, and on the first day of the new lunar year revelers welcomed the Year of the Sheep. Or maybe the goat. Or perhaps the ram. For English speakers, it is a can of worms. “Few ordinary Chinese are troubled by the sheep-goat distinction,” Xinhua, China’s main state-run news agency, said in its report on the debate. ... The reason is that the word for the eighth animal in the Chinese zodiac’s 12-year cycle of creatures, yang in Mandarin, does not make the distinction found in English between goats and sheep and other members of the Caprinae subfamily. Without further qualifiers, yang might mean any such hoofed animal that eats grass and bleats. ....“The yang possesses a rich and complex meaning in the minds of Chinese people,” said The Beijing Daily, mustering the kind of grandiloquence that journalists can resort to during a slow news patch. “It has permeated every corner of our lives. Some say that in a sense, Chinese culture is not the culture of the dragon or the tiger, but the culture of the yang.”

Related  - BBC News, 2/18/15,"Lunar New Year:  Sheep or goat?" embedded video 1:03 minutes."Hundreds of millions of Chinese people are travelling home to spend the Lunar New Year holiday with their families in the world's biggest annual migration. But while it is farewell to the Year of the Horse, confusion abounds as to whether the coming year is dedicated to the sheep, ram, or goat."

Note photographs.  Goat by Getty from Dailly and Sunday Express, UK.  Chinese Zodiac (ram, sheep, goat) from Holidays.Net

Posted by Kathy Meeh