Chinese Zodiac
That sound of galloping hooves belongs to this year's honored animal of the Chinese zodiac - The Horse!
As Dancer has done the past few years, Style and TeenStyle join forces to wish you a Gung Hay Fat Choy for Chinese New Year - The Year of the Horse. Since the Chinese base their calendar on lunar cycles, their New Year's Day is not a fixed date. For procrastinators, and those who have already fallen off the resolution wagon, you now have a second chance to put things right early on this 21st century. The Year of the Horse begins February 12 and goes through January 31 of 2003. The Year of the Sheep begins February 1, 2003 through January 21, 2004, for those of who like to plan ahead.
If you were born in between January 25, 1906 and February 12, 1907; February 11, 1918 to January 31, 1919; January 30, 1930 to February 16, 1931; February 15, 1942 to February 4, 1943; February 3, 1954 to January 23, 1955; January 21, 1966 to February 8, 1967; February 7, 1978 to January 27, 1979; January 27, 1990 to February 14, 1991; or will arrive February 12, 2002 to next January 31, you and the new arrival are horses according to Chinese astrology.
Just as astrologers check rising signs and moon signs for a more complete personal profile, Chinese astrology has its fine tuning techniques. The time of day one was born determines your outer temperament according the animal who is ruling that particular time period. Also, one of the four elements of earth, air, fire and water, each ruling for a two year period, will add its special touch to your make up.
2002 is a Water and Yang year in addition to being the Year of the Horse.
If you are a Horse, you are the energetic one making those grand, dazzling entrances at light speed. You are a perfect addition to any and every party, and a must-have for a successful fete. Every host and hostess should insure a Horse is added to his/her party invitations. You do tend to gallop in - no easy canters for you - with a ready wit and the best one-liners on the social circuit. And you'll find a delighted audience welcoming you, moaning when all of sudden you turn and dash away to yet another place of high, intense activity.
You are almost like a prism, changing colors, lanes and your mind in an instant. Serendipity describes you well, as do child-like (but not childish), interested and interesting, whimsical, yet filled with a surprising wisdom. Maybe it's because you are interested in and involved in so many things, usually all at once. You are the one who can handle the multi-tasking layers in business and life easily. You probably are reading several books at once, have more than two projects you are working on personally, and may have more than one job professionally. And you can handle them all, thriving on the intensity, completing all the tasks while acquiring new ones to fill the void. Whew!
If anyone needs something done, ask the busy Horse to help. Professional jugglers have nothing on you.
Your strong points are enviable. In addition to your high-energy and ability to handle and finish many projects, you also tend to be a positive soul, with a lovely touch of refinement. Unlike people who must have pals and parties to survive, you have a touch of self-reliance and independence that keeps you from being just another empty partygoer.
You are Puck, Ariel and Peter Pan. An ageless, energetic wonder. No old-age woes for you. You'll find Horses still dancing, participating in the Senior Olympics, and defying age, gravity and the other so-called inevitable signs of aging.
Everyone loves a Horse for Horses love life so very, very much.
But even beautiful Horses have their downside, and it's a heavy one you face.
The phrase "love is blind," belongs to you - sort of. The truth is that love blinds you more than the other signs of the Chinese zodiac. You're not dumb - just bowled over and, yes, struck blind. Think of your love search as needing several rehearsals and auditions to find the right partner.
In love, Horses must slow to a gentle walk before they agree to make a commitment. And having a good divorce lawyer won't hurt either. Each one you fall in love with is THE one for you. You are sure of this. You know this in your heart. And you are probably wrong. Again. Don't despair though. Those dreaded mature years are good ones for you. You have wisdom, yes, but good, old plain "horse-sense" seems to evade you in love affairs until you are old enough and mature enough to look back and see your patterns in love clearly and honestly.
Horses aren't perfect. As you can guess, unenlightened, unprogressed Horses will also be saddled with a lack of patience, extreme volatility and incredible recklessness as they rush too much. They are also inconsistent and have a huge ego.
They do best with Tigers, Dogs and Sheep life partners. Wait and read our future double columns and learn more about them. You can survive with Dragons and Roosters if frequent fights won't upset you. Life is possible but rough with Rabbits, Snakes, Monkeys, Pigs and other Horses, but you should avoid Rats and Oxen. The worst years for a Horse to marry are during the Years of the Tiger and Horse. The best are during the Years of the Rat, Ox, Rabbit, Dragon and Dog. Leave it to the erratic-in-love Horse to have many auspicious years for marriage!
If you are a parent of little Horses, you can guess that enforcing rules won't be easy. But they will need boundaries so that they can gain inner strength and self-discipline. Horse children tend to be early chatterers who excel in language skills.
If you are a Horse parent, you may need to work at finding quality time for your children. Don't see them as another project. Put them first in your life. Your strong points as a Horse parent will be in raising independent children who are well traveled and thus well-informed about the world.
Your Horse home is, well, eclectic. You love your home and it reflects all your projects, finished and in progress (still). It's warm and cozy, but has a definite lived-in look. Let's just say that slowing down to do housework is not priority on a Horse's list.
Your best Horse careers are in the communication fields, languages, entertainment, travel industries, hotel keepers, bar tenders, sales (if it involves traveling), journalism, and camp-operators at dude ranches. An interpreter is ideal for a Horse, for it can involve travel as well as people and languages. Intense, creative, high-powered jobs are for you. You'll not be found in self-employed mom-and- pop ventures unless they are your third or fourth project. You are a club joiner as well as a partygoer, and an excellent team player. Anything that involves solitary work for long hours may destroy you.
You do better in finances than love, but not by much. You tend to spend money as quickly as it comes in, but you also have the ability to go out and make more.
Your favorite and flattering color is brilliant, shimmering orange. Your best stones are the topaz, turquoise and amethyst. You love any gifts that will make your traveling more fun, easy and exciting, including the perfect carry-on bag; travel books; gadgets such as compasses, cameras, and cell-phones; books on your next destination, and cookbooks to help you keep the flavor of your latest journey alive.
You are happy traveling, being in the midst of people, so when you need a break (such that those are for Horses), go to a theatre workshop to hone your performing skills or take up flying (private or model planes will do)
A perfect Horse destination is the exotic and dramatic Algeria (not for solo female travelers EVER! Take another Horse buddy with you).
Fellow and famous Horses include man-on-the-moon's Neil Armstrong, Leonard Bernstein, Kevin Costner and Chopin, Degas, James Dean, Kirk Douglas, Clint Eastwood, Chris Evert, Aretha Franklin, Harrison Ford (and that must include Indiana Jones!), Billy Graham, Jimi Hendrix, Rita Hayworth (remember that paragraph on love?), Lenin, Nelson Mandela, Princess Margaret and Paul McCartney, Rembrandt, FDR, Barbra Streisand, the red-headed priest/composer Vivaldi, and Tammy Wynette.
In Horse years, Pluto, atomic fission, flash bulbs (it figures), the Big Bang theory, and DNA were discovered, and frozen foods were created (that makes sense, too).
You don't have to be a Horse to be affected by a Horse year. After last year's quieter, more introspective Snake year, saddle up and be prepared to take off at a mad gallop. Couch potatoes won't know what hit them!
Money will tend to fly out all too quickly. Slow down, think, analyze and even get second and third opinions before investing and making radical financial changes.
It is a good year for travel and marriages, but also for divorces.
Have a grand galloping good time this year!
To begin your celebration, pick and choose the Chinese New Year customs you want to try for a second fresh-or-otherwise start.
• Clean up your act. And your house. Sweep out the old so the new can enter. The very careful put away knives and scissors so they don't risk 'cutting their luck.'
• Resolutions are not de rigeur, but if you have any left over from the beginning of the year, you might try them again.
• Enjoy oranges and tangerines. The Chinese word for orange sounds like 'wealth' and the one for tangerine sounds like 'good fortune.' There isn't a fruit that sounds like the word for 'luck,' which is pronounced 'fook.'
• Decorate with plum blossoms for longevity and courage, or use water narcissus. Green thumbs will probably grow their own. If it blooms on Chinese New Year's Day, good luck will be yours the next twelve months. Gangrene thumbs can make do with silk imitations.
• Make an offering to your Kitchen God with a special dinner. He leaves before the New Year and returns New Year's Day. Welcome him back February 13 with a fine feast.
• Get your hair cut and washed for luck in the coming year. Buy new clothes for a fresh start. (And you thought you were running out of reasons to go shopping?)
• Pay your bills. Debts hanging over into the New Year are considered as bad as beginning a new year hung over.
• Have a grand party. All are welcome. Better than Alice's Un-Birthday tea party, all traditional Chinese treat this as a communal birthday. One's age is taken from how many New Years one has seen pass. The emphasis on family is strong. If someone cannot be present, set a place anyway.
• No matter whose year it is, red, accented with gold, is the favored festive color. Red is for happiness. Parades with dancing lions and firecrackers (where allowed), to chase off bad luck and evil spirits, are the favored festive show.
• Children and unmarried adults are given red envelopes with paper money as good luck (Lai-See) gifts. Loose change is considered bad luck.
• On New Year's Day, be at your best and on your best behavior. Pay attention to what you do that day - it is said to determine your luck for the rest of the year.
• If you can't cook Chinese, do what many Chinese do. Support your local Chinese restaurant and order in. Remember to eat the low fattening Chinese way by going heavy on the rice. The recent exposes of the hidden fat in Chinese foods failed to emphasize that the problem is one of operator error. Westerners tend to stock up on sauces, OD'ing on main dishes.
Gung Hay Fat Choy! Wishing you good fortune and happiness. •