Lunar New Year

The Lunar New Year is the last of the new year's celebrations and markings on earth from Halloween and Sahain, the Old Celtic New Year through the Jewish New Year, Rosh Hoshannah, to the Julian and Roman New Year, ours (Roman) on January 1 and finally the Chinese or Vietnamese or Lunar New Year celebrated in Asia. Here in Silicon Valley the Vietnamese community puts on a sweet Lunar New Year celebration and in San Francisco, the big Chinese New Year's celebration is this week. This year the Asian calendar marks the New Moon at the end of January on the 26th but the official celebration is Feb. 4th, people have extended their celebrations. Officially it will be the Year of the Ox or the Brown Cow.

My learner that I tutor English to at the library is from Taiwan and she recently returned from a month long holiday through the Christmas season clear up to the middle of January. We talked at length about the New Year celebrations in China and she told me it is the biggest holiday of the year and most Chinese people try to celebrate it for 15 days. She had to look hard for a traditional New Year card for me because Hallmark had taken over the market in Taipai!! If you click on the title of this post you will link to a website with information on this Chinese New Year. It also includes the Chinese Lantern Festival which is celebrated in Pacific Grove, CA in these parts of the country.

Spring is around the corner and we are enjoying magnolias beginning to bloom and today I saw several large fruit trees with white blossoms. Iris, calla lillies and birds of paradise are in many yards and once in a while, Christmas lights are still lit at night. Some people have a harder time letting go of this wonderful holiday time.