I must admit to struggling every year at New Year’s Eve in New Hampshire to feel in a New Year-ish kind of spirit. Outside it is usually very cold, sometimes icy and windy, and there is little light to brighten us up and feel festive. And I always find myself wondering why someone centuries ago randomly decided that this date on the calendar – January 1 – should be the beginning of a New Year.
Still, I push myself to feel in the New Year spirit. Despite shivering in the cold. Despite the cold. Despite the general pall outside. I try to Ring in the New Year with good cheer.
Perhaps because of my general disenchantment with the January 1 New Year date as it plays out in New England, I have begun to focus more upon the Chinese New Year in recent years. And it has begun to feel to me, in a way, almost more like a true New Year, than the January 1 date does.
Chinese New Year is celebrated sometime in early February. Since it is based on a lunar count, the exact date varies slightly from year to year. It is estimated that two billion people around the world celebrate Chinese New Year. That is one quarter of the world’s population.
Each Chinese New Year ushers in not only a new number in the calendar, but also a new animal that will preside over the year. And with this new animal comes new energies, new possibilities, and new opportunities for each of us – if we choose to understand the underlying rhythms of that particular year.
The Chinese New Year of 2024 will be celebrated on February 10, 2024, and it
promises to come in with a wallop of energy and change for two reasons. First, because it will be the Year of the Dragon. And the Dragon is among the luckiest, and one of the most powerful of the twelve Chinese astrology signs.
Dragon is the fifth animal in the Chinese zodiac. According to legend, The Emperor was puzzled when the Dragon did not come first in the great race across the river between the twelve animals. The Dragon could, after all, easily fly across the river. The reason was that the good-hearted Dragon had found a village on fire and had raced over to extinguish the flames before returning to the chase. As a result, he came in the fifth position and was designated as the fifth animal of the zodiac.
And second, 2024 ushers in the beginning of a new twenty-year cycle, according to Chinese astrology. It is Period 9, and will last from 2024-2044. Period 8, which will end on February 10, 2024 began in 2004.
Each twenty-year cycle brings about changes and transformations. Period 8 was an Earth period, called the Mountain. Now Period 9 will bring in more fire energy. It is also going to be a period where there will be greater power for middle aged woman in all sectors of society and the work place, and is said to be a time when instead of counting on a steady job year after year, as in an earthy period, we will all have to hustle and have various sources of income.
Period 9 is also about an awakening call and reshuffling of new priorities in life. There will be a shift in mindset from profit and wealth to purpose and an awakening call for morality, spirituality, societal consciousness, environment, and culture. There will be greater focus on higher level consciousness and inspirations rather than earthly pursuits such as money and possessions.
And so even if everyone will be saying that New Year began on January 1st, 2024, especially this year when Chinese New Year will usher in both a New Year and a New Cycle, I am focusing more on that New Year, on February 10th. I am intrigued to see how Cycle 9 will unfold for all of us, and the world at large.
It has been about twenty years since I moved back to the United States, and to Keene, from Chile. And now another twenty-year cycle is about to launch. I’m imagining myself riding on the back of an enormous, sinewy dragon – its wings outspread, and fire flaming from its mouth. Wahoo! Want to join me? Hop on board.
Happy New Year times two to you. Happy January 1st New Year. And Happy Chinese New Year/New Cycle also. Wishing you all the best at this changing of the times.
Published in The Monadnock Shopper News January 3-9, 2024
SKYE stephenson 
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