Happy Lunar New Year
Lunar New Year is a most important festival in Asian Culture. It is celebrated on the new moon of the first month according to the lunar calendar, and is a time for family reunions and scrumptious feasts. The Chinese zodiac cycles every 12 years, and each year is named after an animal. Last year, the Year of the Dragon started on January 23, 2012 and continued to February 9, 2013. Which makes this new year, the Year of the Snake starting from Feb. 10,2013 to Jan 30, 2014. The names of the animals vary among the different Asian countries due to culture. That’s a little explanation of the Lunar Year.
In any case, Sui encouraged this post so I decided to make it as fun as possible. I love this holiday, it is supposed to run from the 1st of the month to the 15th day when the Lantern Festival will be, but life today doesn’t accommodate such festivities. But wouldn’t it be awesome, to have 15 days of partying? I decided to do this in an interview style so that I can include Scot and Sui too.
On the Year of the Snake
Moon: So a lot of people do spring cleaning before the Lunar New Year taking it as an act of leaving the problems of the previous year behind. What was your Spring Cleaning?
Scot: Made you clean the house, and take everything you weren’t using outside. You keep a lot of junk, Moon.
Moon: One man’s junk another man’s treasure. Answer the question.
Scot: (he laughs) well that was it, literally spring cleaning the house. You can keep a lot of unimportant things in the place without knowing. So, it’s always great to reorganize the house and take out stuff not being used and make room for new ones.
Sui: Cleaning walls and all that, I got tired.
Scot: But you were clean.
Sui: I know. (chuckles) Too clean. Well, my way of Spring Cleaning was more about my way of thinking. If something wasn’t working before, I’ll try a new way hoping this year it will be better. I think I’ll do some shopping too for some clothes.
Moon: What Zodiac year were you born?
Scot: Year of the Tiger
Sui: Year of the Pig
Moon: I was born in the year of Rabbit. My grandmother would call us good friends, which we are. How about that.
Moon: How many hong bao are you expecting? For our readers, hong bao are red envelopes (Like the pictures above) given during the holiday. They are stuffed with money, and are given to children and unmarried adults. But, married couples give hong bao to their parents.
Scot: Obviously, I’m expecting from you, Moon, it better be stuffed, and Sui. And the rest of my family, even though I’m not married yet, I still give one to my parents. So I hope to get many of them from relatives.
Sui: Moon promised me a stuffed one too. Of course from Scot, I’ll have to see about everyone else.
Moon: There are so many types of hong bao. Long envelopes, short envelopes, different institutions compete to have the 
most memorable Hong Bao envelopes. They are all red some trimmed with gold. Red symbolizes prosperity so when you give a gift wrap it in red, you’re wishing your family and friends great prosperity for the New Year. What are your wishes for this Year of the Snake?
Scot: I’m looking forward to a great year in our business. Even though this economy has been tough lately, I hope things improve even more and the plans we’ve made work out. On a personal level, I hope to make more changes.
Sui: He means find that certain someone, right?
Moon: Scotty, may be you want to fall in love this year? That’s good; the year of snake is a good relationship year for the tiger. What about you Sui?
Sui: I hope to do better with my writing this year. I’m happy for what I’ve done with it the last year, but this year, I hope to take it to the next level, and hopefully reach more readers.
Moon: I personally love your writing, so I wish you the best with your writing too.
Sui: What about you, Moon?
Moon: I hope to work less, and have more time to do the things I love like art and traveling. Maybe visit a few places I’ve only read about. Also, like Scotty, may be find someone to share it with.
Sui: How is it spending time with your family for the holidays?
Moon: A lot of fun, I haven’t seen some of them in a while and we were lucky to make it through the traveling okay. Otherwise, we’ll have dinner, and watch some fireworks. I’m looking forward to it.
From Moon
This holiday is about being with family and friends, enjoying each other’s company and eating as much as you can. Forget problems faced in the previous year and anticipate a better year, and face the coming year with a fresh outlook. I think it makes me happier just being around so many people who love me. They are happy for all my triumphs and wishes, and certainly encourage me to do better in my new ventures.There’s no greater medicine than that.
To all, Xin Nian Hao, (happy New Year) and wishing you prosperity
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