2021 Chinese New Year

The date is February 12th. The day of the new moon that marks the beginning of the year of the ox. But also the day of the Spring Festival. There are many meanings and curiosities about this holiday, with over 4,000 years of history.

2021: the Bull’s Year (Ox)

February 12th 2021 marks the end of the Year of the Rat and the beginning of the Year of the Ox(or Buffalo). The former is the bearer of upheaval, the latter stands for solidity, tranquility and even prosperity. According to one myth, Emperor Jade decided the order and in terms of yin and yang, the Ox is Yang. In Chinese culture, the ox is an important animaldue to its role in agriculture, in fact it has positive characteristics, such as being great workers, intelligent and reliable, that never ask for praise.

Those born with the zodiac sign of the ox have very particular characteristics: they believe that everyone should do what they are asked and stay within their limits. Although they are kind, it is difficult for them to understand persuasion using pathos. They rarely lose patience, they think logically and are excellent leaders.

2020 Chinese New Year

Chinese New Year will be celebrated on 25th January 25 2020. The typical color of this festival is red. Each year, China celebrates, in turn, 12 different animals that, according to an ancient legend, were chosen because they answered the call of the Buddha. 

2020: The Rat Year

2020 is the Year of the Rat and marks the beginning of a new 12-year cycle. The last year of the Rat was in 2008, as well as 1912, 1924, 1936, 1948, 1960, 1972, 1984 and 1996; if your birth year is among them, it means that your Chinese zodiac sign is indeed the Rat. 

According to Chinese astrology, a person’s characteristics derived from the zodiac sign and element associated with the year of birth.

According to the theory of the elements, each sign of the zodiac is cyclically associated with one of the 5 elements: Gold (Metal), Wood, Water, Fire or Earth. This means that, for example, a Wood Rat year occurs once every 60 years.

2019 Chinese New Year

February 5 will be the Chinese New Year (or Spring Festival or Lunar New Year) and this 2019 will be the year of the Pig, or Boar. 

The Pig years have been 1935, 1947, 1959, 1971, 1983, 1995, 2007 and now 2019. In Chinese astrology, each year belongs to an animal of the Chinese zodiac according to a cycle that repeats every 12 years.

2019: the Pig’s Year

The lucky Pig occupies the twelfth position in the Chinese zodiac, after the jovial Dog and before the cunning Rat. The zodiacal years are dictated by the Chinese calendar and are due to the succession of 12 energies called terrestrial branches 地址, each paired with an animal of the zodiac.

According to Chinese astrology, in the year of their birth sign-Ben Ming Nian本命年-people offend Tai-Sui 太歲, the god of age in Chinese mythology, and thus have bad luck. So people born under the sign of Pig should be more careful about all aspects of their lives in the year 2019, just as each zodiac sign should be cautious in the year of their birth sign.

The most important days of the Chinese New Year holiday period 

• The New Year’s Eve: the day when families get together. According to the traditional Chinese calendar, it is called 除夕 Chúxī, which in English can be translated as “getting rid of the evening”. In 2019 it is on Monday 4th of February.
• The first day of the year: during this day we visit relatives and exchange New Year’s greetings. In the Chinese calendar this day is called 初一 Chūyī, meaning “first day”; it is the actual New Year’s Day and this year it is Tuesday, February 5th.
• The Lantern Festival: it is the last day of the festival period and corresponds to the fifteenth day of the first month of the Chinese lunar calendar. This year it happens on Tuesday 19th of February.

How to celebrate Chinese New Year

What could be better than a good cup of tea to do justice to this tradition of the rising sun? 
We chose to sip on a legendary Oolong Da Hong Pao tea from Wuyi Rock.