Year of the Tiger

February 14, 2010 was the first day of in the year of the Tiger. Here in Bacolod there was a weekend celebration to bring in the New Year which included parades, fireworks, street dancing and of course a New Years Eve program. At the Lagoon, a city park with a huge Talapia pond, they had each of the 12 Chinese animals which represent a year all lit up with an explanation of personal characteristics a person would have born in that year. For example, I was born in 1980 putting me in the year of the monkey so I obviously am lively, likeable and witty. If you are curious about your Chinese animal sign you can always go here. You just have to find your year adn it will let you know your animal and from there you can read about your characteristics you have based on that animal. Not only are there 12 different animals that go in rotation but they alternate the different elements, for eg. earth or metal, to narrow down your personality. Have a look and see how well you match with your animal!

Being interested in how exactly they determine when the new year will occur (it has a different date every year) I ended up doing a bit of research. The Chinese New Year occurs on the second Full Moon of the Winter Solstice. Winter Solstice (according to Wikipedia) is when the earth's axial tilt it at it's furthest point from the sun and commonly known as midwinter. Well for midwinter it's feeling pretty warm and i'm defiantly not shovelling snow off my sidewalk.
Happy Chinese New Year everyone!