Gong Hei Fat Choy

 

This is a scheduled post.  Please see here why I may not be around to visit.

Happy New Year!  Chinese New Year, that is.  It is also known as the Lunar New Year or Spring Festival.

This is the longest Chinese holiday.  The Spring Festival is technically 15 days, but celebrations start on New Year’s Eve, thus making it 16 days of partying, worshiping, and eating.

This is the year of the Ox.  Of the 12 Zodiac animals, this is the second.  Legend has it that the Jade Emperor was throwing a party and wanted to select 12 animals to be his palace guards.  He preferred the Ox to be the first for its honesty and diligence, but the animal order would be decided by the order in which they arrived to his party.  The Ox was about to be the first to arrive, but Rat tricked Ox into giving him a ride.  Just before they arrived, Rat jumped down and landed ahead of Ox. Thus, Ox became the second animal in the Chinese Zodiac.

 

Each Zodiac animal also has several other characteristics.  These include five elements (metal, water, wood, fire, earth), five colors (white, yellow, green, red, blue),

 

and gender (Yin: feminine and negative; Yang: masculine and positive).  

Therefore, this is the year of the white, metal, female Ox.  And since there is metal as part of this year's animal, I am also joining Valerie, who is hosting Art Journal Journey this month

with her Heavy Metal theme.

 

The lantern festival is held on the final day of the new year.  This year, it is February 26. The general belief is that the lantern festival began more than 2000 years ago in the Western Han dynasty.  

Throughout history, countless variations of lanterns have been created. Today they can be small globes that fit in the palm of your hand, or as large as a parade float.

This is definitely Year 4718 in the Chinese calendar, but my date stamp is incorrect. I have it set for another date and didn't realize it when I used it on this two page spread.

Those of you who are trying to photograph metal, especially gold, know how hard it is to capture the image in photograph.  For this two page spread I created in my Collage Two altered book, most everything other than the computer generated words and Ox, are joss papers, those papers that are often burned during the Spring Festival.  That includes the two zodiacs.  The lanterns are a gift from long ago from my dear friend Cindy.

Thanks so much for joining me today as we celebrate the start of Chinese New Year.  Xin nian kuai le (literally meaning Happy New Year) or gong hei fat choy for those living in Hong Kong and Canton regions, or gong xi fa cai for those living in Mandarin regions, or happy Chinese new year for those living in the States and other English speaking countries.  I hope to also see you at Art Journal Journey.