Chinese New Year 2018 is a global celebration and will soon be upon us with spectacular celebrations. Unlike the New Year we celebrate here, the date of Chinese New Year differs from year to year. Chinese New Year is known as the Lunar New Year or the Spring Festival and the meaning of the festival is for families to come together and wish each other peace and prosperity. The is keen interest every year to see what animal it is. A zodiac animal on the lunar-solar Chinese calendar is represented annually. People are said to hold similar personality traits to the animal named after the year they were born and interestingly.
The Dog
The Dog is the eleventh of all zodiac animals. According to one myth, the Jade Emperor said the order would be decided by the order in which they arrived to his party. Monkey, Rooster and Dog were in another country, helping a god defeat evil spirits. After, they set off to the party together. Because they arrived at the same time, the Jade Emperor went by the order they met the god in the other country. Thus, Dog became eleventh.
The Dog is also associated with the Earthly Branch (地支—dì zhī) xū (戌), and the hours 7–9 in the evening. In the terms of yin and yang (阴阳—yīn yáng), the Dog is yang.
In China, it is still popular to name dogs Wàng Cái (旺财). It means “prosperous wealth” and comes from dogs’ barking sounds (旺旺—wàng wàng).
We start celebrating Chinese New Year 2018 on 16th February.
Sources: Metro, chinesenewyear2018.com
