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Happy Chinese New Year - The Year of the Snake!


Courtesy of The Palm Beach Post.

Today and tomorrow are filled with celebrations for the Chinese New Year, the Year of the Snake, which begins tomorrow, Sunday January 10, 2013.

The snake is associated with wisdom and influence, and is sometimes considered the "Little Dragon," the second most powerful and lucky among the twelve Chinese Zodiac creatures.

There are various legends regarding the origins of the Chinese calendar, and the order of the animals in it. One is that the Buddha invited all the animals to come, either to join him on New Year's Day or to share his last day on Earth, and some of the animals - sometimes the snake, sometimes the rat, depending upon the telling - hitched a ride on the ox and jumped off, thus arriving first.




Among those born in the Year of the Snake are Brad Pitt, Bob Dylan, Virginia Woolf, Oprah Winfrey and Mao Tse-tung.

You can read more about the Year of the Snake in this post by US/China business and educational consultant and former Michigan state superintendent of schools, Tom Watkins: Year of the Snake Slithers In.


Courtesy of news.xinhuanet.com.


You can also check out some delicious Chinese recipes (Whole Wheat Man-tou and Festive Fried Rice) at my wife Charong Chow's child-friendly food blog, Eating With Hudson and Paradise.

Xinnian kuĂ ilè Gongxi facái — Happy New Year, Congratulations and be Prosperous!


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