Celebrating Chinese New Year: The Year of the Rat

[Guest guest]

Good Morning!

 

This is the beginning of the new lunar calendar. In celebration of

the Chinese New Year, I will be discussing the many wonderful

contributions the Asian cultures have given the world in relation to

alternative medicine.

 

Celebrating Chinese New Year: The Year of the Rat

 

Chinese New Year starts with the New Moon on the first day of the new

year and ends on the full moon 15 days later. The 15th day of the new

year is called the Lantern Festival, which is celebrated at night

with lantern displays and children carrying lanterns in a parade.

 

Prior to New Year's Day, Chinese families decorate their living rooms

with vases of pretty blossoms, platters of oranges and tangerines and

a candy tray with eight varieties of dried sweet fruit. On walls and

doors are poetic couplets, happy wishes written on red paper. These

messages sound better than the typical fortune cookie messages.

 

The lunar calendar has a sixty year cycle. In Chinese Astrology, the

five basic elements of Metal, Water, Wood, Fire and Earth, which make

up all matter, are combined with the twelve animal signs of Rat, Ox,

Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Lamb, Monkey, Rooster, Dog and

Pig to form the sixty year cycle. One's Chinese horoscope is based on

which lunar year in this sixty year cycle one was born.

 

The Rat

 

Rats are said to be imaginative, charming and very generous to those

they love - although they do have a tendency to be quick-tempered and

over-critical. They are supposed to make good writers, critics and

publicists. They are known for his charm and attraction for the

opposite sex. They are imaginative, charming, and truly generous to

the person you love. They are thrifty with matters of money They are

easily angered but love to gossip. Lucky Numbers: 1, 4, 5, 10, 11,

14, 41, 45, 51, and 54.

 

Learn more about your Chinese horoscope and determine which animal

you were born under:

 

http://www.peacefulmind.com/feng_shui.htm

 

 

Andrew Pacholyk, MS, L.Ac.

Peacefulmind.com

Therapies for healing

mind, body, spirit