Gung Hai Fat Choi!

It's Chinese New Year today :-)

My (long-suffering) husband is half Chinese and as such he expects to celebrate. So tonight we're having a lovely Chinese meal when the children are in bed. the children had a nice Chinese supper with crackers and everything so I don't feel guilty at all having a 'grown-up' night.

These are our Chinese lanterns which are very pretty and a good excuse to decorate the house a bit. We also have a tacky red Chinese dragon and a rather beautiful red ball decoration with golden tassel which was a gift from my mother-in-law.

The boys had a great time making loads of noise to 'wake the dragons' and bring us good luck for the next year. The amount of racket they made should bring us luck for most of the next decade actually ;-)

The ancient Chinese used a lunar calendar so the actual date varies annually.
Each year is assigned the name of an animal. Legend has it that Buddha called a meeting of all the animals at the time of the Chinese New Year but only twelve came. As a reward for their loyalty he announced that each of them would be assigned a year and people born during that year would take on some of that animal?s personality.

There are twelve animals; rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, sheep, monkey, rooster, dog and pig. They repeat in a twelve year cycle. 2011 is the year of the rabbit. People born in a rabbit year are said to be cuddly, warm and affectionate. They make great hosts and are considered one of the zodiac's luckiest signs.

The exact origins of Chinese New Year are lost in history but the story my mother-in-law told me is as follows:

A fierce beast named Nian (which means ?year? in Chinese) emerged one night to eat the people of the villages. Everyone was very frightened except one brave old man who approached the beast and suggested that rather than eating villagers it should eat all the other beasts which frightened the villagers instead as they were more worthy opponents. Nian obeyed the old man then carried him away. The old man turned out to be an immortal God and before he left he advised all the villagers to hang red decorations in their windows and set off fire crackers every New Year?s Eve so the beast would never return.

We haven't got any fire crackers so our left over Christmas crackers had to do! I dare say they did the trick, I've just let the dog out and the garden would appear to be a man-eating beast-free zone.