Chinese New Year

February 14, 2010 - Chinese New Year, Lunar New Year, or Spring Festival is the most important of the traditional Chinese holidays. It is commonly called "Lunar New Year", because it is based on the lunisolar Chinese calendar. On the Western calendar, the start of the New Year falls on Sunday, February 14, 2010 — The Year of the Tiger. This year, the date had special significance since it also happened to fall on Valentine's Day making it a doubly auspicious day to celebrate in the West.

The Lunar New Year dates from 2600 BC, when the Emperor Huang Ti introduced the first cycle of the Chinese zodiac. Because of cyclical lunar dating, the first day of the year can fall anywhere between late January and the middle of February. On the Chinese calendar, 2010 is Lunar Year 4708.

If you were born in 914, 1926, 1938, 1950, 1962, 1974, 1986, 1998 or 2010 - you were born under the sign of the tiger.

Each February Coaster celebrates Chinese New Year in custom with various Chinese traditions

The gods, who exist in an economy that is perpetually in good shape, always take a vacation over New Year’s— returning to earth on the fourth day of the year. They are welcomed back with firecrackers and offerings of spirit money. The welcoming ceremonies often take place at the end of the day, because no one wants to offend a god who might be getting back to town a little late.

A table is set up and covered with offerings for the gods. The three main meats—pork, chicken and fish are present. Oranges, which are a symbol of good luck are always included, along with rice cakes and spirit money. Candles are placed in a shrine. Incense is burned. Family prayers are offered. When the incense has burned down about halfway, the gods are considered to have had their meal.

The Chinese, like many ancient cultures, believe that what you need and enjoy in this world will be needed and enjoyed in the next. And the way to send things from one world to the other is to reproduce them on special paper, and then burn the paper. The physical aspect of the thing disappears in the heat of the fire. The essence of the object goes into the smoke and the smoke goes up to the other world, where it is received by the spirit to whom it was sent.

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