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Sunday, January 26, 2014

Welcome the 2014 Chinese New Year - Year of the Horse - and enjoy various celebrations in Los Angeles with your family

The first day of Chinese New Year in 2014 falls on January 31 this year and it heralds the year of the Horse!  If you are turning 12, 24, 36, and 48 (you get the idea!) soon, you were born in the year of the horse.

The weeks before Chinese New Year are busy days of spring-cleaning for Chinese families to get rid of last year's bad luck and to welcome in the new year's good luck!  Hence, all the new red decorations, lucky bamboo plants, and all symbolic new year decorations. Did you know the Chinese traditionally never sweeps dirt out of the doorway out of the house to avoid sweeping out good luck?  Tip: Always pick up the dirt inside the house's door threshold  in a dustpan and dispose separately.  

The "practicing" Chinese believe you can do a lot to actively attract the good and to avoid the bad.

Examples are practicing Tai chi for daily meditative physical exercise, stimulating your accupressure points to get your qi (energy) circulating smoothly and to induce good health by improving your immune system. There are specific points for specific ailments.  Eating a healthy balance of "heaty" and cooling foods or specifically for an organ that is challenged or a condition.  My East-West medicine doctor at UCLA diagnosed a spleen deficiency and recommended spleen tonic foods in the tradition of food as medicine.  He also ordered health check blood tests.  As a retired Caucasian Chinese doctor who teaches accupressure say, "There is no illness but blocked circulation."  In other words, you don't have to be born Chinese to be a "practicing" Chinese health practioner :)

So, here's wishing you a healthy year of the horse :)

Read more about new year preparations and origins of New Year traditions in these links:

http://www.history.com/topics/chinese-new-year
http://www.history.com/topics/chinese-new-year-traditions-and-symbols
http://www.china-family-adventure.com/chinese-new-year-traditions.html#.UuRX6hCwrIU
http://www.travelchinaguide.com/essential/holidays/spring-festival.htm

In Los Angeles, if you are adventurous and your children can stay up to midnight on a weekday, participate in the Midnight Temple Ceremony on the eve of New Year on Thursdays night!  If you have never been in Chinatown for the grand parade, this year's parade should feature horses.  A few years ago, a live Vietnamese pot-bellied pig in a shopping cart was part of the Year of the Pig celebration parade. Go for a early lunch in Chinatown and find a nice spot for your parade viewing.  Bring snacks and entertaining games you can play while waiting in your good spot.   If you would like to give a good luck red packet to the lion dancer, place an even amount of money inside the red packet (say, $2, $4, but not an odd number $5 note) and "feed" them to the dancing lions for good luck.  You will need to wave to the dancing lions and wave to show your red packet and the lion dancers will come to you and take it through its mouth!  This is a wonderful experience for your children and a great photo memory.   I suggest taking the Gold Line metrolink which stops right near the parade and save parking hassles in Chinatown during Chinese New Year.

We have never been to the Citadel Outlets, but there is also a musical performance on the same day as the parade if you wanted something quieter than a parade.

For the first time and in a big way, Santa Monica Place is celebrating the whole 15 days of the Lunar Chinese New Year with events scheduled until Feb 14 on Valentine's day.  I have included details of the public schedule below and it looks like a very manageable way to enjoy some Chinese cultural arts demonstrations, music and performances in a very comfortable mall setting.

Finally, on March 1, don't miss Chinese American Museum's annual all day celebration of the Chinese Lantern Festival which we have always enjoyed!

Enjoy the 15 days of Chinese New Year celebrations :)  It is a family celebration indeed.

Wishing all of you a Happy and Prosperous New Year, as the traditional greeting goes!

Details of all events below:



JAN. 30: MIDNIGHT TEMPLE CEREMONY - CHINATOWN


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