Gung hay fat choy

Happy Chinese New Year! Saturday marked the beginning of the year of the Yin Fire Rooster. I'm sure that most of you are familiar with the 12 animals of the Chinese zodiac, but maybe not with the Yin Fire part. I did a blog post on the subject in February of last year.

Today seemed like a good day to talk about Chinese New Year for two reasons 1) It's right after the start of the new year...Chinese New Year begins on the first new moon of the year and 2) Today is Serpent Day and the serpent or snake is one of the 12 animals of the Chinese zodiac but the next year of the Snake won't be until 2025.

My dad was born in the year of the Rooster, except he was a Yin Water Rooster. Here are some of the qualities of roosters:

Type of Rooster           Year of Birth        Characteristics

Wood Rooster              1945, 2005        Energetic, overconfident, tender, and unstable

Fire Rooster                 1957, 2017       Trustworthy, with a strong sense of timekeeping and responsibility    

                                                           at work

Earth Rooster               1909, 1969        Lovely, generous, trustworthy, and popular with their friends

Gold Rooster                1921, 1981        Determined, brave, perseverant, and hardworking

Water Rooster              1933, 1993        Smart, quick-witted, tenderhearted, and compassionate

You can find more at this page, including what this year will bring for you and some famous roosters.

But what I found really interesting while researching this post is that Donald Trump and two of our three most recent presidents were all born a month apart: Bill Clinton in August of 1946, George W. Bush in July and Donald Trump in June! Three very different personalities all born within a 90 day period.

1946 was a Yang Fire Dog year and according to China Highlights a Fire Dog is Intelligent, hardworking, and sincere. I'll leave it to you to see if there's any correlation to the current and former presidents.

Let's talk about our most recent president, Barack Obama. Obama was born in 1961, which was a year of the Ox. In fact 1961 was the year of the Yin Gold Ox and these people are Hardworking, active and always busy, and popular among friends. Another interesting tidbit is that 1 and 4 are lucky numbers for oxes and Obama was the 44th president. History will show us whether this was a lucky time for him.

And totally unrelated, there was a TV series in 1982 called "Tales of the Gold Monkey". The years of the Gold Monkey in the Chinese zodiac were 1920 and 1980...the next one will be 2040.

Interesting days

February will be Bird-Feeding Month, Library Lovers' Month, North American Inclusion Month, Heart Month, Hot Breakfast Month, Bake For Family Fun Month and Cherry Month

Today - Decorating With Candy Day, Baked Alaska Day, Car Insurance Day and Serpent Day 

Tomorrow - Lung Leavin' Day, World Play Your Ukulele Day, Crepe Day, Marmot Day, Hedgehog Day, World Wetlands Day and Sled Dog Day

Next Wednesday - Kite Flying Day, Molasses Bar Day, Opera Day and Laugh And Get Rich Day

March will be Umbrella Month, Nutrition Month, Hemophilia Awareness Month, Multiple Sclerosis Month, Women's History Month, Craft Month, Caffeine Awareness Month, Cheerleading Safety Month, Credit Education Month, Kidney Month, International Ideas Month and Peanut Month

March 1 - Refired, Not Retired Day, Plan A Solo Vacation Day, World Compliment Day, Fruit Compote Day, Horse Protection Day and  Pig Day These last two are also animals of the Chinese zodiac!