Chinese New Year ruled by the Rabbit
Chinese New Year begins with the Lunar New Year, the most important holiday in the Chinese calendar, also known as the Spring Festival.
This year is governed by the Water Rabbit beginning on January 22, 2023 and ending on February 9, 2024.
The main characteristic of this New Year is that it is considered a time of hope.
Chinese New Year celebrations last four days, both in China and in small communities around the world.
They are considered the most important days of the year, and represent great mobility for the people who take the opportunity to visit and be with their family.
In China, big parties are celebrated, not only to see relatives, but also because they believe in the energy of the animal that rules the year, in this case the rabbit is a symbol of good luck.
The Chinese calendar is based on the phases of the sun and moon.
A new lunar year begins with the second new moon after the winter solstice in the northern hemisphere.
According to this ancestral belief, the year of the rabbit invites us to:
- Clarify everything in our personal life and our relationships,
- to be able to pay debts,
- to reconcile with family and friends,
- to be able to order the house,
- to remove old and useless things,
- to make all the necessary changes.
Chinese Astrology
Chinese astrology is based on the position of the planets (five), the position of the Sun, the moon, as well as the date of birth, which determines the destiny of a person.
Each personality is associated with an animal that represents it, according to the lunar year of birth.
It differs in that each year in the 60-year cycle contains twelve animals:
- Rat
- Ox
- Tiger
- Rabbit
- Dragon
- Snake
- Horse
- Goat
- Monkey
- Rooster
- Dog
- Pig
Each with five possible elements, which are modifiers of the animal personality, with a possibility of up to 60 combinations.
Â
Do Latinos believe in the year of the rabbit?
Astrology currently enjoys a broad cultural acceptance not seen since the 1970s.
It could be said that this paradigm shift began with the arrival of the internet, access to personal computers and mobile devices, and of course, with the power of social networks.
The latest YouGov poll found that more than a quarter of Americans (27%), including 37% of adults under the age of 30, say they believe astrology and astrology influence people’s lives.
About half of Americans (51%) say they do not believe in astrology and (22%) are not sure.
Younger American adults are more likely than older Americans to say they believe in astrology.
Women (30%) are more likely than men (25%), to say they believe in astrology.
White Americans (25%) are less likely than black (31%) and Hispanic (32%) Americans to believe that stars and planets predict behavior.
Nowadays it is common to hear someone express themselves in terms of the sun, the moon and the rising sign.
This belief does not show a contradiction or point to the origin of the one who believes, and even the astrological concept does not seem to be incompatible with the scientific community.
Latinos and astrology
The 80s was the period in which a source of Latino immigration to the US began.
Also began a strong movement of astrologers who began to have great exposure on television channels, either in segments of an entertainment program, or in channels dedicated exclusively to the worship of the stars.
For example, for many young Latinos growing up in the US, astrologers like Walter Mercado were the first introduction to horoscopes and astrology, mainly thanks to their grandmothers. Like many others, this type of astrologer had a daily segment on channels like Univision, generating interest in this generation of reading daily horoscopes, regardless of religious belief.
It is well known that the majority of Hispanic and Latino families in the US have a religious affiliation, generally Catholic and Christian.
And even when this type of inclination is not recognized in public, for a long time, those 15 minutes of the day when recognized astrologers made their appearance on the Latin channels, was a moment in the day in which immigrant families who were struggling financially, would receive hopeful news.
Although there is no evidence of whether Latinos in the US empathize with the celebration of the Chinese New Year, it is a holiday that generates interest in communities, including Hispanic ones.
In New York, the city where one of the largest Asian communities in the world resides, it is so popular that more than half a million people come to see it, including Hispanics.
In Los Angeles and San Francisco, this festival has been organized since 1899 and is the premier cultural event for the Southern California community.
Despite preserving their religious traditions and beliefs, the new generations of the Latino community have been leaning towards issues related to spirituality, energy management, astral charts, in a tireless search for the meaning of life and the exploration of emotions.