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Having chicken?freeandfun1 said:It is the "Year of the Rooster" - Today is the first day of the Asian Lunar New Year 4703.
My wife is Asian, so tonight we will be having a big feast at my house!
HONG KONG : According to the lunar calendar, Wednesday marks the start of the Year of the Rooster, a boastful and blunt but hard-working bird whose arrival presages better times for business but a bumpy ride for politicians, according to soothsayers.
Chinese fortune tellers are busy putting together personal profiles for the coming year and are being called upon to predict everything else from political events to economic trends and health developments to sports results.
A belief in fate is embedded in Chinese culture and fortune telling has been practised for thousands of years.
"Chinese believe many forces influence their lives. The West might see it as superstition, but who knows?" said Lau Chi-pang, history professor at Lingnan University.
The lunar calendar is based on the cycles of the moon and associates each year with one of 12 animals whose personalities dictate the characteristics of each 12-month period.
The rooster is the tenth in the zodiac sequence that starts with the rat, followed by the ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, goat, monkey, rooster, dog and ending with the pig.
As the rooster is considered both boastful and hard-working, soothsayers expect the year to be one of ups and downs.
Past rooster years have been bloody. In 1909 Japan invaded Korea, beginning a 36-year occupation. In 1933 Hitler came to power. And in 1945 the Second World War ended with the atomic bombing of Japan.
Worryingly, Feng Shui master Lee Sing-tong believes the coming year of the rooster will be no exception.
He predicts conflicts between China and a country to its east, hinting at Japan, during the second and third lunar months (March 10-May 7).
"Our country and a country to its east will easily come into conflict. A revival of militarism, disputes over sovereignty of territories and sea boundaries could blow a fuse. The problems are serious," Lee predicted.
Lee, a third generation Feng Shui master, divines the future by consulting ancient Chinese almanacs based on astrological observations.
However, they also take into consideration the relative weights of forces that Chinese folklore believes emanate from all things, especially specific "elements" that are said to dominate different years.
Among the determining elements are earth, gold and fire, all of which will play their parts in the coming year.
Lee said there would be an excess of the element gold, which would result in wars.
"Gold means weapons, metal, and war. Competition of armaments and a repeat of catastrophes are inevitable," he said.
According to predictions by geomancers working for Hong Hong-based bank CLSA, the elements will also conspire to bring economic volatility.
"The fire element is dominant in the earlier part of the year -- this element denotes tech, electronic gadgetry, telecoms and utilities ... these sectors will do well," the bank said in its 14th annual Feng Shui economic survey.
Earth will become dominant later in the year and that will benefit industries rooted in raw materials, like textiles, commodities and property.
With gold pre-eminent in rooster years, geomancers expect good news in the gold market with prices, according to CLSA, reaching 600 dollars an ounce.
The elements will affect health matters and Lee predicts another year of viral outbreaks in Asia.
"Gold represents lungs and intestines, meaning there will be mainly infections of the respiratory tract and pathological changes in intestines," he warned.
Health problems will dominate in the first three lunar months (February 9-May 7) before reaching a peak in the seventh, eighth and ninth (August 5-November 2).
Another master, Alion Yeo, said the rooster year will be full of sex scandals.
"Famous people will be caught drink-driving and getting into car accidents. There will be more cases of couples getting together and splitting," Yeo said.
A word of advice for those aged between 24 and 36 born in previous years of the rooster: they will be fickle in love, rushing to get married but then suddenly pulling out of wedding plans, Yeo added.
CSM said:Having chicken?
Hobbit said:新年好!
Said1 said:Chinese astrology, goes by the year you were born. I was born during the year of the rat.
Hobbit said:You have no idea what that says, do you?
To tell you the truth, I knew what you meant by the rat comment and what I said wasn't related to that. However, when I post in Chinese characters, I should probably expect stuff like this.
Hobbit said:新年好!
Hobbit said:If you install the simplified Chinese language pack, you'll see the Chinese characters for "Happy New Year!"
freeandfun1 said:Gong hei fat choy! (literal translation is "new year is good")
새해복많미받으세요!
sae hae bok manh mi bap ngeu se yo! (literal translation "have much luck of new year")
