February third is the Lunar New Year, celebrated in East Asia as the New Year or Spring Festival.
The Reuters article "Chinese Ready for Upheaval, Sex in Year of the Rabbit" is a lively explanation that each year in the Chinese system has its own character. Since the Year of the Rabbit is full of motion and excess, the article predicts lots of sex scandals. Since both Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie were born in rabbit years, the article says they would be well advised not to tie the knot next year.
The Wikipedia article "Lunar New Year" leads to articles on holidays observed according to lunar systems, including Rosh Hashanah. The Chinese New Year article is long and full of more details than most of us would need, but the principal menace to humanity is that following the links will take you to so many fascinating places that the rest of the morning is shot.
Traditionally New Year lasted for fifteen days, ending with the Lantern Festival. When I lived in Taiwan my landlord explained that New Year is when the rice bin gets emptier and the outhouse get fuller.
But I'm still not sure why it's "rabbit" and not "hare."
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment