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Tiller Maringa

It is unclear when exactly the celebration of the New Year began for Chinese people.

Many countries celebrate their New Year on January 1 every year but for the Chinese it is a dramatic story.

Their celebrations are based on their cultural mythology and they abide by the their traditions.

The Chinese tale has it that, the beginning of Chinese New Year came up after fighting against a mythical beast called the “Year.”

It is believed that the animal live in the sea and was like an ox with a lion’s head.

On the night of New Year’s Eve, the beast would come out to destroy animals and people’s belongings.

That is when Chinese developed fear after discovering the year with the colour red and loud sounds triggered them to put New Year’s Chinese craft on their doorsteps for protection against the beast.

The myth has a strong attachment with animal attributes.

Today, Chinese celebrate their thematic New Year.

The theme of this year is “The Year of Rat” disparaging the virtues of the rat.

“For the year 2020, the main zodiac element is metal, hence 2020 is the year of the metal rat. The Chinese year will last from January 25 2020 to February 11, 2021”, said a Chinese man identified as Henry He.

According to their culture, the rat is the first of all zodiac animals.

“The rat is the first in the 12-year cycle of the Chinese zodiac signs”, said Henry.

The order is determined by which the animals arrived to the celebrations.

Chinese folklore presume that the rat tricked the ox into giving a ride and jumped down, landed ahead of the ox becoming the first.

Rats are said to be clever, quick thinkers and content with living a quiet and peaceful life.

In Chinese culture, a rat is a sign of wealth and surplus.

This is due to their high reproduction rate and married couples also pray to them for children.

“Rats symbolise vitality, one reason is that, it has a strong reproductive capacity with a high survival rate, about 5 000 rats are born to one female each year and high fertility rate”, Henry said.

It is believed that, people born in the year of a certain animal will automatically adopt some qualities of the year’s thematic beast.

People born in the year of the rat are said to be optimistic, energetic and liked by all,sensitive to other people’s emotions, does not take opinions into consideration and kind.

Their choice of words may seem rude due to poor communication skills.

On the financial side, they are saving and can be stingy.

However, their love for hoarding sometimes will cause them to spend more money unreasonably.

Those born in the year of the rat have sharp imagination and suitable for creative jobs.

These jobs include authors, editors and artists.

There is a list of lucky things associated with the year of the rat like numbers 2 and 3, flowers such as African violet and valley lily, colours include gold, blue and green.

Rats are also associated with the belief that love comes from the west and east and southeast as direction of wealth.

The lucky months of the year of the rat are March, September and November whereas April, July and October are unlucky ones.

Recent years of the rat are: 1924, 1936, 1948, 1960, 1972, 1984, 1996, 2008, and 2020.

An astounding thing about Chinese New Year is that, both dates and animals differ from year to year.

Rotational cycle of animals has monkey, rooster, ox, snake, dog, sheep, horse, tiger, rat, pig, rabbit and dragon.

This years’ New Year is on January 25 and on the previous year was on   February 5 embracing the theme “The year of the pig”.

“According to the Chinese zodiac, we are bidding farewell to the year of the pig and ushering in the year of a mouse, these two animals each stand for sturdiness and intelligence.

“I find it a fitting description of the passing year and the one to come”, said Chinese Ambassador Shuochun Guo in his speech on Thursday last week.

They held a festival which lasted for about 15 days filled with traditional rituals and celebrations.

On January 13, “Happy Chinese New Year Gala” was held at 7 Arts Theatre,

Art troupe from China National Opera and Dance Drama Theatre ignited the floor with their performance at the festival astoundingly.

The audience enjoyed their music.

It was the first exchange event celebrating 40th anniversary of the establishment of China and Zimbabwe diplomatic relations in 2020.

Chinese (Zhong guo ren) and other nationalities also gathered at the Chinese embassy on Thursday 16 celebrating the fourth coming New Year.

It was for cultural interactions.

“Robust was the popular support for China- Zimbabwe relations thanks to a number of cultural programmes unfolding throughout the year.

“Just three days ago, China opera and Dance Drama Theatre art troupe presented fabulous art performances for the Chinese and Zimbabwean audience at the 7 Arts Theatre, to make the 2020 Happy spring festival a success”, said Ambassador Guo.

The performance was coupled with a Chinese meal (Zhong guo cai) and a lot of Zimbabweans enjoyed the meal.

In an interview with The Herald on Saturday Lifestyle Gao Wei manager from Colclare Furniture highlighted that there is a Spring Festival Gala from 8pm to 12am.

“We will be enjoying a Spring Festival Gala from 8pm to 12 am.

“After 12am, we always eat dumplings (jiao zi) and we have to make them on our own not buying them from the restaurant.

“If you do not eat dumpling, it seems like you do not even celebrate New Year”, Gao Wei said.

She also highlighted that the young will always say to their elders “Xin nian hao” which translate to Happy New Year.

“Xin nian hao, xin nian hao” to the elders.

“The elders respond by giving them red envelopes as a blessing. Then we go out visiting our relatives.

“Red is a luck colour for the Chinese people”, said Gao Wei.

This is a memorable holiday for all Chinese and no one wants to miss the festivals.

Life needs to be celebrated, jumping up in jubilee with plenty of things to do like drama, poet, kung fu to mention only a few.

We are wishing you a Happy New Year.

Women zhu ni xin nian kuai le