Chinese communities in the country and in many parts of the world welcomed the Year of the Fire Monkey, the ninth in the Chinese Zodiac, at midnight marking the first day of the first lunar month in the Chinese calendar.
Also known as Spring Festival or Lunar New Year, the celebration of the Chinese New Year, the longest and most important of the traditional Chinese holidays, ends 15 days later with the observance of the Lantern Festival.
Lunar New Year dates back to 2600 BC when Emperor Huang Ti introduced the first cycle of the Chinese zodiac. This year marks the 4,713th Chinese year.
Based on the Chinese Almanac, the Year of the Fire Monkey begins on February 8, 2016 and ends on January 27, 2017. Similar to western astrology, the characteristics of the animal that rules the year are believed to define individuals born under the sign of the Monkey or those born on the years 1920, 1932, 1944, 1956, 1968, 1980, 1992, 2004, and 2016.
According to experts, those born in the Year of the Monkey are smart, naughty, wily, vigilant, cheerful, charming, energetic, and flexible. They can, however, also be egotistical, arrogant, crafty, restless, and snobbish. Meanwhile, days of colorful and elaborate festivals, intense preparations, parades, dragon and lion dances, fireworks display, visits to friends and relatives, and the largest human migration around the world to travel home to attend reunions culminated yesterday with the onset of the Chinese New Year.
Time-tested New Year’s Eve traditions were observed including thorough cleaning of homes, wearing of new clothes and shoes, opening of doors, windows, and lights, getting a new haircut, cleaning and repainting of altars, preparation of fruits believed to invite good fortune, on tables, and the repainting of doors and window panes.
The color red, the emblem of joy and prosperity and which is believed to scare away evil spirits and bad fortune, was liberally used in painting and decorating. Lucky money in red envelopes were given to children, sweets were served, while some bathed in boiled pomelo leaves for good health.
Also known as Spring Festival or Lunar New Year, the celebration of the Chinese New Year, the longest and most important of the traditional Chinese holidays, ends 15 days later with the observance of the Lantern Festival.
Lunar New Year dates back to 2600 BC when Emperor Huang Ti introduced the first cycle of the Chinese zodiac. This year marks the 4,713th Chinese year.
Based on the Chinese Almanac, the Year of the Fire Monkey begins on February 8, 2016 and ends on January 27, 2017. Similar to western astrology, the characteristics of the animal that rules the year are believed to define individuals born under the sign of the Monkey or those born on the years 1920, 1932, 1944, 1956, 1968, 1980, 1992, 2004, and 2016.
According to experts, those born in the Year of the Monkey are smart, naughty, wily, vigilant, cheerful, charming, energetic, and flexible. They can, however, also be egotistical, arrogant, crafty, restless, and snobbish. Meanwhile, days of colorful and elaborate festivals, intense preparations, parades, dragon and lion dances, fireworks display, visits to friends and relatives, and the largest human migration around the world to travel home to attend reunions culminated yesterday with the onset of the Chinese New Year.
Time-tested New Year’s Eve traditions were observed including thorough cleaning of homes, wearing of new clothes and shoes, opening of doors, windows, and lights, getting a new haircut, cleaning and repainting of altars, preparation of fruits believed to invite good fortune, on tables, and the repainting of doors and window panes.
The color red, the emblem of joy and prosperity and which is believed to scare away evil spirits and bad fortune, was liberally used in painting and decorating. Lucky money in red envelopes were given to children, sweets were served, while some bathed in boiled pomelo leaves for good health.
The Eve of the Passing Year reunion dinners were also held serving an abundance of food like fish, chicken, dumplings, nuts, noodles, and sweets like the popular glutinous rice flour (tikoy) to symbolize unity, prosperity, abundance, longevity, and good fortune as well as in thanks giving for the blessings of the past year. In the country, it has become a tradition for many Filipino-Chinese to gift their friends with ‘tikoy’ days before the onset of the New Year.
Source: mb.com
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