Today is the Lunar New Year, so welcome to the Year of the Rat, everyone! Gung hey fat choy!
What can we expect in a Rat Year? According to Susan Levitt and Jean Tang in Taoist Astrology, the Year of the Rat is:
Okay, then! Sounds good!
Here's a fun little traditional ritual to encourage prosperity and abundance for the upcoming year. Exchange a coin with another person while wishing them Gung Hey Fat Choy (Happy New Year)! Make sure each of you brings your own coin of equal value to give to one another -- don't just pass the same coin back and forth. You don't want prosperity to simply swirl or circle around -- you want it to come and stay with you!
43 comments:
I imagine lunar new year in china this year is filled with fear due that virus going around. my company's reps in singapore & china have the week off to celebrate.
It is a sad New Year for the poor Chinese, hope their problems with the virus end as soon as possible. They've even cancelled all the massive movie premieres and closed the cinemas.
Shouldn't that be "Dung, Hey, Rat Chow"? Ghastly scuttling things. Why do they get a whole year?
when people are firm about their goals, passions and aspirations.
I can think of one rather rat-like individual who is very firm indeed about those things. However, we have mostly survived so far.
Happy Chinese New Year Wishes for you, friend D. Love, cat.
Very cool! I'm all for giving that a try. Gung Hey Fat Choy - to you also!
YAY! My birth animal!!! Gung Hey Fat Choy!!!
Hello Debra, Happy Year of the Rat to you! I just had Chinese New Year dinner with my friends last night, and we had the ritual exchange of cash, but paper money in red envelopes. Few people here still say gong xi fa cai (the Mandarin equivalent of gung hay fat choi), they just say Happy New Year (xin nian kuai le). I also added little mouse-shaped bells for fun.
--Jim
"bringing abundance and good fortune". Hmm, let's hope so because January sucks.
My daughter is a "rat". Most of what we know about Chinese New Year has been from the paper placemat at a local Chinese food restaurant. Kind of pathetic. I like how the year of the rat is described - I'm in for that! -Jenn
David and I went to our neighbor's home and we exchanged coins this morning. We had already talked about doing this last weekend and they thought it was silly but decided it would be fun. We are having lunch out with them this afternoon. Something new to do.
Heres to the rat! We sure could use him right about now.
Have a coin, but it's just me in the house with the dog....not sure if that will work.
So how my mind works: this reminds me of those really buff muscle guys with tats; a lot of them had Chinese characters tattooed on on their torsos or wherever. I always think that they might actually say "Kung Pao Chicken" or "Moo Goo Gai Pan"
I'd like a little shared prosperity!
Gung hey fat choy to you, Debra! It sounds like the Year of the Rat will be a good one. Terry returned from his last trip to Vegas a week or so ago and brought me a darling jeweled rat in honor of the Chinese New Year. Yes a rat can be darling ~ fake jewels of course!
Hung Hey Fat Choy!
My husband and I went for dimsum last week. At the end of lunch, I opened my fortune cookie and it was empty, which legally means that I can write my own future for the year of the rat. It's going to be a good year.
Hopefully this is the year we will get the rat out of the White House.
the Ol'Buzzard
That is a cool little ritual! :)
Gung Hey Fat Choy, Deb!
Have you seen The Year of the Rat stamps from Canada Post? They're really cute.
Happy Chinese New Years! May the upcoming year be happy and healthy for us all.
"Socializing?" That's what I'm doing right now.
Happy Year of the Rat! I guess I should start looking into a great investment or 2 this year!
I look forward to the year!
Totally forgot that it was the Chinese New Year today (well, yesterday for me actually). My brother's ex-wife is Chinese, so we once participated in a Chinese wedding.
On a side note, I hate rats.
Rats! Where? Where? Anyway, Merry Month after Christmas! Only eleven more months to go! Hahaha!
'Gung Hey Fat Choy' is apropos for us 'round here as Cantonese is the dominate language among our Chinese language speakers.
Happy Year of the Rat!
Happy Year of the Rat! I just discovered my brother is a Rat. Wait until I tell him! I myself am a Horse... of course.
It poured here yesterday but they say they went along with the festivities anyway. I was stuck in, sick, so I missed it all this year.
Wishing everyone a good year!
Happy year of the rat! That is a really nice ritual.
Gung Hey Fat Choy, Debra! Now, I'm imagining my coin landing on your hand and your coin landing on mine. Let the prosperity roll in...
Happy new year!
Adorable looking rat at the bottom of your post. The US post office stamps commemorating the year of the rat are a little scary.
I'm glad I'm a dragon
And a very Gung Hey Fat Chow to you too!
Not sure how the forecast will relate to Britain post Brexit.
Gung hey fat choy, you two! Sounds like it's going to be a great year. I'm excited!
I hope the rat is good to all of us...Interesting information..Gung hey fat chop to you.!!!
does that mean we can get rid of the rat in the white house/?
Happy year of the rat!
I'm going to try the coin thing. Now, if only my pronunciation of the phrase is accurate and don't wish the person something terrible...
XOXO
I was lucky enough to have my daughter visiting for the Lunar New Year, so that brings a positive outlook to my year. :^)
Happy Lunar/Chinese New Year, Debra!
I love that traditional ritual!!
We celebrated by having Chinese food (actually it was a coincidence but I like to think the gods directed me to celebrate)
Happy Year Of The Rat Debra!!! Let it be amazing!!!!!
Happy new lunar year dear Debra
i wish Chinese people a safe healthy start of new year
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