Circles 3
Symbol: Phoenix
The Phoenix tile indicates great happiness and joy. The Phoenix is said to be reborn out its ashes. Accordingly the Phoenix tile also denotes sure recovery from any setbacks encountered.
By Rhonda Parkinson, About.com Guide
If you live in an area that has a Chinatown, chances are that at some point you’ve watched the Chinese New Year celebrations. However, Chinese New Year (also called the Spring Festival) doesn’t begin and end on a single weekend. Instead, the Spring Festival lasts a full fifteen days, with preparations beginning before the old year has come to a close. By the time the New Year arrives, families have already spent several days preparing for the big event; cleaning the house, buying gifts, and cooking festive foods.
People often wonder why the date for Chinese New Year changes each year. The Chinese calendar is a combination solar/lunar calendar, based on a number of rather complex astronomical calculations, including the longitude of the sun. Chinese New Year falls on the second new moon after the winter solstice (all months begin with a new moon). In 2013, Chinese New Year Day falls on February 10th.
How did Chinese New Year come to be celebrated? According to an ancient legend, people were once tormented by a beast called a Nian – a ferocious creature with an extremely large mouth, capable of swallowing several people in a single bite. Relief from the Nian came only when an old man tricked the beast into disappearing. In reality, New Years festivities probably evolved from a desire to celebrate the end of winter and the fertility and rebirth that come with the spring, much like the ancient Roman festival of Lupercalia. Today, New Years is about family reunions and wishing everyone good fortune in the coming year.
The Spring Festival is China’s major traditional holiday, and is also celebrated in other parts of Southeast Asia, including Vietnam (where New Year’s Day is called “Tet”), Malaysia, Taiwan, and of course, Hong Kong. However, in my research I couldn’t find any mention of Chinese New Year’s celebrations in Japan. Lisa Heupel, an expert on Japanese Culture, came up with a possible reason – apparently the Japanese followed the lunar calendar until the middle of the nineteenth century. However, after the Meiji Restoration in 1868, they adopted the Gregorian calendar. Since that time New Years is celebrated on January 1st. While there are other popular festivals celebrating the arrival of spring, such as Hanami or the cherry blossom viewing festival, for the most part Chinese New Year goes unnoticed in Japan, except for a few small celebrations by the Chinese who live there.
Whether or not today is your birthday, I’m acting as if it is and celebrating you! So here’s a gift that keeps on giving with all my good wishes and love! Buy five helium-filled balloons, one of each of the following colors: red, yellow, white, pink and purple — never use blue, green or black balloons! Tie a tail on each balloon with nine or eighteen inches of red ribbon, string or thread. Use a new black felt-tip marker to write on each balloon one treasured wish that completely describes your heart’s desires. You can have five different wishes or write the same wish on all five balloons. Then take the balloons to an open space and release the ‘wish’ balloons one at a time. Visualize them turning into small golden orbs that are heading into the mouth and belly of the Sky Dragon. In gratitude for filling his tummy, he will then make your wishes come true sometime within the next year. Blow up your birthday and make a wish! This time you can count on it coming true!
By Ellen Whitehurst for Astrology.com
Dragon’s Breath in the Earth
NOTE: Because of the large number of ancient calendars, many in simultaneous use, as well as different ways of computing holy days (marked by the annual inundation, the solar year, the lunar month, the rising of key stars, and other celestial and terrestial events), you may find these holy days celebrated a few days earlier or later at your local temple.
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