Chinese New Year 2015 - The Year Of The Goat

Chinese New Year 2015 begins on Thursday 19 February, and end on 5 March. 

Spring Festival, widely known as Chinese New Year in the West, is the most important traditional festival, and the most important celebration for families in China. It is an official public holiday, during which most Chinese have 8 days off work.

It is day one, month one of the Chinese lunar calendar, and its date in January or February varies from year to year (always somewhere in the period January 21 to February 20).

The Chinese lunar calendar is associated with the Chinese Zodiac, which has 12 animal signs: rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, goat, monkey, Rooster, dog, and pig. Each animal represents a year in a 12-year cycle, beginning on Chinese New Year's Day.

2015 is a year of the “Goat” according to the Chinese 12-year animal zodiac (Heavenly Stem) cycle. If you were born in a Goat year, according to Chinese astrology, you should be particularly careful in 2015. Furthermore 2015 is a year of the “Wood Goat”, according to Chinese Five Element (Earthly Branch) Theory. A “Wood Goat” year occurs every 60 years. 

It is custom to have lucky decorations everywhere. Every street, building, and house is decorated with red. “Red” is the main colour for the festival, as it is believed to be an auspicious colour. Red lanterns hang in streets; red couplets are pasted on doors; banks and official buildings are decorated with red New Year pictures depicting images of prosperity. As 2015 is the year of goat, decorations related to goats will be commonly seen. There are red goat dolls for children and New Year paintings with goats on.

It is custom to eat certain foods during the 'New Year' festival because of their symbolic meanings, based on their names or appearance.

Fish is a must for Chinese New Year as the Chinese word for fish (鱼 yú /yoo/) sounds like the word for surplus (余 yú). Eating fish is believed to bring a surplus of money and good luck in the coming year.

So to conclude … wherever you are … whatever nationality … at this time I would join in the Chinese custom and wish everyone peace and prosperity in the coming year. Maybe we should add good health too.

With special mention to our friends John (low carb team member), Julie and family.

More can be read here about Chinese New Year

All the best Jan