Lunar Year of the Fire Horse

It’s a busy time of year. Mardi Gras was yesterday, and for some, Lent, the season of penitence, begins today. It’s also the 15-day (or so) Lunar New Year for the Chinese year 4,724. It’s the year of Bing Wu… the Year of the Horse on the Chinese Astrology calendar, whose element is fire… red fire, guided by the planet Mars.

Lunar years are quite different than our Gregorian calendar years. Lunar months are 28 days long, not 30 or 31. It’s like a whole year of Februaries! Thus, the lunar year is ~11 days shorter than a solar year. Because of this, when using a lunisolar calendar, about every three years or so, a whole ‘leap month’ is added to the calendar instead of just a ‘leap day’ every four years like in our Gregorian calendar.

According to The Human Origin Project, because the Chinese calendar is lunisolar, the Lunar New Year doesn’t start on the same day each year. It’s determined by the second new moon after the winter solstice (or the equinox). Each lunar month starts with a new moon (opposite of a full moon… I used to say that a new moon meant no moon when we were sailing). The night the new moon rises is the first day of the new lunar month. I must say that glancing at a calendar, or my watch or iPhone, seems much easier to understand, but that’s just me.

Over two billion people worldwide celebrate the Lunar New Year, and it is the oldest traditional festival in China and is considered among the most important holidays in Chinese culture. The celebration runs for 15 days, from New Year’s Eve gatherings through to the Lantern Festival. It’s a symbolic time of renewal—a clearing out of old worries and problems and a chance to increase luck and good fortune. Traditions include cleaning house and sweeping away the bad luck. However, don’t sweep or clean for several days after the new year for fear of sweeping away the good luck that hopefully has just arrived.

In Las Vegas, there are celebrations throughout the next couple of weeks. The Bellagio and Venetian typically have big displays, and Las Vegas now hosts Chinese New Year (CNY) in the Desert, a lunar new year celebration and cultural event. “Forbes Magazine named it one of the top 8 places in the U.S. to celebrate Chinese New Year. Our vision is to establish Las Vegas as home to the largest Chinese New Year celebration in the United States. Each year, the funds we raise support efforts to promote awareness, foster understanding, and educate the community about Asian-American and Pacific islander cultures, with a strong focus on the traditions and significance of Lunar New Year.” Unfortunately, other than the Downtown parade on Fremont Street, most of the events are fairly expensive to attend, so we’ll give it a pass.

We will, however, head to Las Vegas’ Chinatown Plaza on Spring Mountain Road for its annual Chinese New Year celebration at the end of this month. It’s a fun festival with lots of performers, a lion dance, Asian vendors, and street food. We’ll wear red like so many others, hoping for luck, prosperity, and protection in the year ahead. We can use all the help we can get.

I will leave you with a bit of Chinese folklore… the Legend of Nian (in a nutshell).

Here comes Nian!

A sea monster named Nian would come ashore on Lunar New Year Eve to hunt down people and livestock. In anticipation of the Nian’s arrival, the villagers would lock up their houses and flee to the mountains to escape Nian’s wrath. One year, as the townsfolk were scurrying to leave town, an old beggar man arrived in town. In their haste to depart, the villagers pretty much ignored him except for an old woman who gave him some food. She explained that Nian would be arriving soon, and he needed to escape. Instead, he promises that if he can spend one night in her house, he will rid the town of the monster forever. She agrees and hurries out of town.

When Nian approaches, he expects the town to be draped in darkness, but instead, he sees one house all alight and heads there. The house is aglow with candles, and the house is decorated in red. The monster roars, but the old man, dressed in red, meets the monster at the front door and laughs at him while loud, thunderous cracks explode in the courtyard (fireworks). Nian is frightened and recedes to the sea, never to appear again. When the villagers return, they learn the old man’s tricks to keep the monster away, and every year thereafter, they use the old man’s tricks to celebrate and scare away evil.

We’re doing Chinese take-out tonight. What are you doing?