Happy New Year  Chinese Style –Year of the Water Tiger (February 1-15, 2022)

Happy New Year –Chinese Style!  The Lunar New Year begins with the first new moon that occurs near the end of January and ends on the fifteenth day when the full moon arrives.

Lunar New Year is the single most important traditional celebration in East and Southeast Asian cultures. Over 2 billion people celebrate the Lunar New Year for a two-week period  with a dragon parade on the first or second day and a Lantern Festival on the last.

Twelve animals comprise the Chinese calendar and zodiac, one for each month: the rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, goat, monkey, rooster, dog and pig.  This year is the year of the Water Tiger.

The tiger ranks third  on the Chinese zodiac. These rankings are based on the order of teaching by the Buddha. Tigers were taught third among the twelve animals. According to a Buddhist sutra,  the Tiger was overly confident that no one could compete with its speed and energy for the celestial race that would decide the order of the zodiac animals. However, when the Tiger climbed out of the river, thinking it was first, Buddha informed him that the Rat placed first for its cunning and Ox placed second for its diligence. This left the king of the jungle in third place.  [The Tiger, not the Lion, is king of the jungle in East Asian mythology.]

The water tiger is action-oriented and represents strength, bravery and destroying evil, making 2022 a very auspicious year. 

The purging of evil can be applied to the relatively positive shift from our current pandemic to endemic, a stabilized disease with established patterns, as opposed to major outbreaks prompting emergency response.

Consequently, 2022  indicates a prosperous year due to the Tiger’s strength, bravery and proclivity to destroy evil.  This fierce, feline energy encourages bold action and radical independence, especially in finances. The dark side is overconfidence, arrogance and egotism that serves self-interest rather than community.   If arrogance and greed prevail, there will be global expansion based upon  aggression and conflict. 

Note: Cities outside of  Asia  are also beginning to celebrate this festival:  New York, San Francisco, Vancouver, and London.  San Francisco claims its Chinese New Year parade is the biggest outside of Asia and  has hosted a Chinese New Year celebration since the Gold Rush era of the 1860s. Rep. Grace Meng (D-NY) is one of more than 40 Congressional sponsors of the Lunar New Year Day Act, which was introduced in the House on Jan. 28, alongside a resolution “recognizing the cultural and historical significance of Lunar New Year in 2022” as a federal holiday.

The  House would only need a simple majority (218 out of 435) to pass, before moving to the Senate. The Washington Post notes that its prospects are unclear, and still in the early stages.