For Chinese the New Year is Christmas, the 4th of July and your birthday all wrapped up into one long 15 day celebration. The New year starts with the New Moon on the first day of the new year and ends on the full moon 15 days later. The 15th day of the New Year is called the Lantern Festival. On this day children carry lanterns and households and businesses display lanterns.
The New Year is a family affair, a time of reunion and thanksgiving. The celebration was traditionally highlighted with a religious ceremony given in honor of Heaven and Earth, the gods of the household and the family ancestors. Many superstitions still exist during the holiday. Such as if you cry on New Year's day you will cry all through the year. Therefore, children are tolerated and are not spanked, even if they are naughty. Also the first person you meet on New Years Day will have a significant impact on your fortune the coming year. It is a lucky sign to see or hear songbirds or red-colored birds.
New Year's food include fish, to represent togetherness and abundance, and a chicken for prosperity. Noodles should be uncut, as they represent long life. Dumplings or wontons are very popular in North China.
The 2001 Chinese New year starts January 24th and is the year of the Snake. Snake's tend to be mystical and soft-spoken. Snakes are the most beautiful of all the signs, and are fascinating to the opposite sex. Nothing escapes their wisdom, unfortunately neither does money they are tight fisted. Snakes work and love well with Ox's and Roosters, but not with Boars.
Famous Snakes include Clara Barton, Liz Claiborne, Charles Darwin, Mary Baker Eddy, Elizabeth I, Fannie Farmer, Anne Frank, Mahatma Gandhi, Ellen Goodman, Carole King, Martin Luther King, Abraham Lincoln, Edgar Allen Poe.
