The Year of the Horse gallops in today on the Chinese New Year. Celebrations around the world are in full swing with parades, fireworks, revelry, dragons (of course) and prayers for good fortune on the first day of the Lunar New Year.
The 15-day celebration of Chinese new year starts today, with the first new moon of the calendar year, marking the end of the year of the snake. To bring luck this year and welcome the horse (which in 2014 is combined with the element, wood), Chinese believers will wear red and gold and light candles and incense at local temples.
If the Year of the Horse is your Chinese zodiac birth year, you are said to be:
“A bit like horses: animated, active and energetic – they love being in a crowd. They are quick to learn independence – foals can walk minutes after birth – and they have a straightforward and positive attitude towards life. They are known for their communication skills and are exceedingly apt and witty”. (According to superstition, during your zodiac year you will experience bad luck for the whole year, unless you wear something red, which has been given to you by someone else, according to today’s article in the Guardian.)
The spirit of the horse is recognized to be the Chinese people’s ethos – making unremitting efforts to improve themselves. It is energetic, bright, warm-hearted, intelligent and able.
Famous people born in the year of the horse include, Rembrandt, Sir Isaac Newton, Leonard Bernstein, Teddy Roosevelt, Ella Fitzgerald, Oprah Winfrey, Paul McCartney, Sandra Day O’Connor, Barbara Streisand, Denzel Washington, John Travolta, and Jerry Seinfeld.
To find out your Chinese Zodiac sign, type in your date of birth at the China Guide here: Zodiac/horse
READ a good article on the element/zodiac combination of wood/horse and how this energy will lift our lives if we get in the saddle.