Don't fret if you missed the first day of the New Year in the Chinese Calendar. You still have a few more days where you can celebrate it! Truth be known, you can celebrate the New Year of the Rabbit right now until the 1st of February 2023! It is the longest holiday in China with a whopping 16 days to celebrate! Most of the country celebrates only the first 7 days (no one could afford to be off work for that long!)
Chinese New Year is always celebrated somewhere between January 20 till February 21st on our Gregorian Calendars. So it's always nice to look forward and have something to celebrate during those winter months.
The Chinese have adopted the Gregorian Calendar as their norm from day to day, but still rely on the Chinese Calendar for special events like the Lunar New Year and Lantern Festivals. Many of our Chinese immigrants love the idea of holding onto some of their traditions and honor their past with celebrations during these special days.
If you were born in 1927, 1939, 1951, 1963, 1975, 1987, 1999 and 2011 and now in 2023, you are under the sign of the Rabbit. The only exception would be those born before Jan. 21st. They are part of the group with the Tiger as their animal sign.
Chinese calendars have a 12 year cycle similar to Horoscopes, but they last a year where Horoscopes change every month. People born in the year of the Rabbit have certain characteristics attributed to them. Do you know what your "animal" is?
If not, just check out this chart:
But the Chinese zodiac is a little bit harder to understand than our regular monthly horoscopes, because not only are there different signs for the years, but there are also 5 different elements (water, fire, earth, metal and wood) that each animal passes through too. So 2023 officially is the year of the Water Rabbit!
You can read more about this at https://chinesenewyear.net/zodiac/rabbit/
There are many does and don'ts for Chinese New Year Celebrations! You can never go wrong with the color RED for this celebration! You will find it everywhere, in home decorations, clothing, and those great little envelopes given to children (with money inside)!
So what do you do for a child born under the sign of the Rabbit? Well if you know someone who is having a baby this year, then a lovely gift instead of the requisite Bear, would be a lovely Bunny! Pat Austin (one of our writers) has a lovely shop on ETSY! And there is a lovely bunny that is handmade and special of it's own accord, but would make that special gift for any newborn in 2023!
I don't know about you, but I love bunnies as much as I love bears and I'm sure that any child would be happy to receive this little critter as a gift!
In the meantime, you can learn more about Chinese New Year and Chinese Celebrations, do some reading and some games with this lovely book!
So much to learn and some fun while understanding a different culture!
Gong Hei Fa Choi
(Happy New Year in Cantonese)
Because I love rabbits, I love the year of the rabbit! However, I was not born in the year of the rabbit. Seems like fun though to look up the year and element of the year you were born. Very interesting indeed! I didn't realize there was also an element associated with the year.
ReplyDeleteThere is a lot that I didn't realize as well when I was doing the research into this holiday. I think it's just a little bit of fun during the winter months. I'm a horse, but still have to look into my "element"!
DeleteI love this stuff. I've spent way too much time learning about this. My mom was a Rabbit. I've looked up all my kids in the past - I have dogs, goats, rats, snakes, dragons and more in the family lol. I'm a metal rat which is said to be the toughest (or so I read), if that's true, that explains my life!
ReplyDeleteMe too Barbara, and my family contains horses, rabbits, tigers and rats!
DeleteWhat a fun and educational look at this fascinating holiday, Olivia! I had no idea that each Chinese zodiac sign ‘s animal also passed through different elements. I love your suggestion of a stuffed plush or crocheted rabbit as a gift for a child born this year. Adorable and auspicious!
ReplyDeleteIt makes the Chinese horoscopes so much more interesting I think. Our horoscopes are just a simple sign without any traces of "elements". I think it makes for some fun research into family dynamics with a twist of intrigue!
DeleteThis was fascinating, Olivia. Love that this year is the Year of the Rabbit. And thanks so much for featuring my crochet Rabbit in your review. BTW, I'm a Dragon! LOL.
ReplyDeleteI loved being able to feature your cute little bunny! You a Dragon? Never! LOL
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