The Chinese New Year began on February 3rd this year. As opposed to western reckoning, the Oriental New Year is based on a lunar rather than solar cycle.
The track of the new moon changes from year to year. Thus, Chinese New Year can begin anytime between late January and mid-February.
The Chinese calendar consists of 12 annual cycles each symbolized by a different animal and ascribed certain attributes.
The Chinese Lunar New Year dates back to the year 2600BC when the first cycle of the Chinese Zodiac was introduced by Emperor Huang Ti. This makes the year 2011AD Lunar Year, 4709.
Due to the cyclical lunar dating, the firat day of a lunar year can fall anywhere between late-January and mid-February.
New Year’s is arguably the most important annual event to many Orientals. This year is the Year of the Rabbit. (You can Google search to find the character traits attributed to those born under this sign).
The celebrations that began last Wednesday will continue well into this weekend. And with close to a half-million Chinese in multi-cultural Toronto it should be quite a party.
We should all get out and celebrate the arrival of the 4709th New Year. After all, according to another calendar (the Mayan one) 4710 (a.k.a. 2012AD) just might not happen.
