Lunar New Year - The Year of the Rat

This is the beginning of the Lunar New Year, and The Year of the Rat. It is traditionally celebrated on the second new moon after Winter Solstice. (1) It is thought by many to be a year of plenty, accomplishment and balance. It's considered to be a bad year to count on luck alone, but a very good year for intellectual pursuits, group work, and new beginnings. Key words for this year are prosperity, progress and possibility

According to a Jakarta Post article "people born in the Year of the Rat are respected, courageous, charming, admirable and enterprising people who are able to steer clear of financial troubles.

There are five types of rats named after each of the five elements; metal, water, wood, fire and earth.

The year 2008 is a Wu Zi year: Wu is earth and Zi is water. Consequently, symbols of earth and water will be prominent this year."

The WeMoon Calendar tells us to "Expect a powerful year when people are firm about their goals, passions, and aspirations."

It is a wonderful time to celebrate our connection to those we love and to support those causes and people we believe in.

Let's honor the clever Rat this year: Adapt, stay curious, cooperate, and thrive. Avoid traps that have caught us in the past, and don't forget to have some fun.

Gung Hay Fat Choi! to all here.

Sia

Art: I found this 1995 Year of the Rat stamp image at a blog titled Ponderings Over The Pond. It dates from an earlier year of the Rat, one I found to be a very good year :-) My thanks to POTP for the image.

Links:

Year of the Rat 2008: Some lovely Year of the Rat on-line greeting cards and prints in the style of Chinese brush paintings. The site contains lots of information on this Chinese Zodiac sign.

Rat Web Sites

The Chinese New Year Parade in San Francisco is one of the biggest and more elaborate parades in the world. Take a look behind the scenes, courtesy of SF Gate.

Those who work in a western tradition, might enjoy Owl Daughter's post on the New Moon in Aquarius

Endnotes:

As Wikipedia notes:

The lunisolar Chinese calendar determines Chinese New Year dates. The calendar is also used in countries that have adopted or have been influenced by Han culture (notably the Koreans, Japanese and Vietnamese) and may have a common ancestry with the similar New Years festivals outside East Asia (such as Iran, and historically, the Bulgars lands).

Chinese New Year starts on the first day of the new year containing a new moon (some sources include New Year's Eve) and ends on the Lantern Festival fourteen days later. This occurs around the time of the full moon as each lunation is about 29.53 days in duration. In the Gregorian calendar, Chinese New Year falls on different dates each year, a date between January 21 and February 20. This means that the holiday usually falls on the second (very rarely third) new moon after the winter solstice. In traditional Chinese Culture, lichun is a solar term marking the start of spring, which occurs about February 4.

Lughnasadh

Blessed Lughnasa to you and yours.

Some Pagans celebrate this holiday at the beginning of August. Some Circles, mine included, choose to celebrate Lughnasadh AKA Lughnasa Old Style AKA Lamas closer to the middle of the month and over a period of several days. Some celebrate around the dark or full moon or according to astrological charts. The choice is yours.

Bernadette Cahill has written an excellent article on this holiday for the High Country News. She notes that:

....the July/August festival is now mostly forgotten. Called Lughnasadh (with several spellings) in Celtic lands, the festival became known as Lammas in the Christian churches. Today, pagan groups mark the event, usually calling it Lammas.

Lammas means "loaf-mass,” marking the day loaves of bread were baked from the first grain harvest and offered at church altars. In Celtic lands, it was a feast associated – with conflicting details – with Lugh, the god of light, at the point when the amount of light reaching the northern hemisphere begins significantly to decline.

The four great fire festivals follow each other in the wheel of the year at fairly regular intervals – around 12 weeks or so and more or less midway between the solstices and the equinoxes. This timing, the role of the god of light, and the lighting of fires, all point to a connection with the solar year – and Lughnasadh is often described as part of the wheel of the solar year.

But some authorities say it’s actually one of four lunar festivals that alternate with the solar festivals. Fire lighting up the darkness of the night – like the full moon does – and the ancient Celtic name, which sounds like “lunacy” – indicate this may be correct.

The real question is this:

What is your harvest, and how are your sharing those gifts with others?

Sia

Art: Hay Harvest at Eragny by Pissarro