Chinese New Year – The Year Of The Sheep

Chinese New Year, called “Spring Festival” by the Chinese, starts with the new moon on the first day of the new year and ends on the full moon 15 days later. The 15^th day of the new year is called the Lantern Festival, which is celebrated at night with lantern displays and children carrying lanterns in a parade.

The Chinese calendar is based on a combination of lunar and solar movements. The lunar cycle is about 29.5 days. In order to “catch up” with the solar calendar the Chinese insert an extra month once every few years (seven years out of a 19-year cycle). This is the same as adding an extra day on leap year. So, Chinese New Year falls on a different date of the solar calendar each year. The Chinese New Year this year starts on 1 February.

New Year's Eve and New Year’s Day are celebrated as family affairs, a time of reunion and thanksgiving. The sacrifice to the ancestors is the most important of all the rituals. Departed relatives are remembered with great respect because they were responsible for laying the foundations for the fortune and glory of the family. The presence of the ancestors is acknowledged on New Year’s Eve with a dinner arranged for them at the family banquet table. The spirits of the ancestors, together with the living, celebrate the onset of the New Year as one great community. The communal feast called "surrounding the stove" or weilu symbolizes family unity and honours the past and present generations. People from Northern China will prepare dumplings (jiao-ji in Chinese, with meat and vegetable stuffing) on the New Year’s Eve. (For more information, visit

http://www.educ.uvic.ca/faculty/mroth/438/CHINA/chinese_new_year.html)

Shengie Li, our Chinese friend working for ILO in Dhaka, has told WOMUN what the Year of the Sheep will bring.

“Placed under the sign of the lovely Sheep, the New Year will be a smooth peaceful year following that of the energetic Horse, but somewhat unpredictable. While the flow of events will slow down, we may feel more sentimental and prone to emotions. All this will draw us closer to our families and friends.

According to ancient wisdom, the world scene is supposed to become less dramatic and more tranquil and subdued. Let's make a wish that it may be so! The gentle Sheep will allow us to cater to our whims and fancies, make new friends and travel. But we will all have to keep a tight hand on our purse string.

Patron of the arts, the Sheep will bring out all the creativeness in our natures. We will be productive and imaginative in artistic and aesthetic ventures. The pessimistic vibrations cast by the Sheep will also make us oversensitive and fretful of little problems. In our undertakings, we may become easily discouraged or hypercritical when things are not to our liking.”