Happy Niu Year

Tomorrow starts the new year in the Chinese lunar calendar, beginning the year of the ox. The Chinese zodiac is a big part of the culture here...each lunar year cycles through one of 12 animals. Now on the majority of people's doors and in stores, on calendars, etc. you will see cute carton like pictures of cows and stuffed animal cows everywhere.

So if you were born in March 1977 like me you are the year of the snake. If you are my husband (born December 1976) you are a dragon, which is a pretty popular animal to be (if that counts as an animal). Austin was born in the year of the dog and Bennett (unfortunately if you cared about such things) was born in the year of the rat. Of the 12 animals, I would not have picked such distinguished animals as the snake or the rat if they had asked me ( nor the pig or rooster for that matter). I mean, it seems strange there is no year of the panda. Or even the red or lesser panda seems better than a rat. Or maybe the crane.

But I digress. Tonight is new year's eve and I am told it will be the loudest (and perhaps longest) night of the year. Even at 9 am this morning someone was setting off firecrackers across the street. I will report tomorrow how our first New Year in country goes. I am a little worried how the noise will affect Austin, since he is so sensitive to it. However, so far he seems unphased. He enjoyed watching the fireworks so much from our living room window last night he now associates the noise with something fun and does not seem afraid of it. Hopefully that will be true tonight when it is endless, over and over.

Well, the cute thing to say this year is "Happy Niu Year', because in Chinese niu is the word for cow or ox. So, from all of us here Happy Niu Year!