Happy Chinese New Year 恭禧發財

Kung Hei Fat Choy everyone! It's that time again, Chinese New Year. It's crept up on me a bit early this year and I almost forgot to get out the décor. Today, January 31st, is the first of fifteen days of celebration. Thus begins the year of the horse on the Chinese zodiac.

As we drove through Chinatown recently, we saw some evidence of Chinese New Year. At least I think we did. Perhaps it's just the normal appearance of stores in that area. Nonetheless, there were very auspicious colours of red and gold and even some lucky dragons to be seen.

People born in the year of the horse are said to be good communicators, clever and like to be in the limelight. They are cheerful talented but stubborn, bad tempered and wasteful. Sheesh...my year of the ox is starting to look better all the time. On the other hand, I don't take too much stock in these character traits. After all, Oprah's a horse. Oh wait...Genghis Khan was also a horse. Hmmm....

Feng shui masters are warning that the year of the horse will be volatile, with scandals, wars, bad weather, natural disasters, conflicts, and economic issues. In other words, it will be much like any other year.

So today, as every year, we celebrated. We celebrated the end of a month. We celebrated the upcoming month, February, which is full of special days and activities. We celebrated that the days are getting longer. We celebrated that it didn't snow today. We celebrated that it's Chinese New Year. After all, why not celebrate whenever we can?

Stir fried fresh veggies with water chestnuts, spring roll, tofu tempura,
dumplings, fish and of course, fortune cookies.
  

Lucky bamboo

Dinner is served

Next year, 2015 will be the year of the sheep/goat. Although the year of the dog is 4 years off, at our house, every year is the year of the dog.

Enjoying her auspicious red pillow and window seat