The Year of the Ox

Happy 牛 (niu) Year!

Happy Niu Year

It's New Year's Eve, and the rat will soon hand over the baton to the ox. Many of those born in the year of the ox (so, anyone that is 12, 24, 36, 48, 60, 72, 84, 96 or 108 years old during the lunar year that starts tomorrow) will wear something red every day to ward off bad luck.

It is though that during these special years (when you've lived through an entire cycle of the 12 years/animals of the Chinese zodiac) you might meet some kind of difficulties or obstacles in your life. Wearing the colour red is thought to be the best way of avoiding the bad luck, or somehow shielding yourself from its effects. (There is a good description of why people do this here.) So there are an awful lot of 11, 23, 35, 47... year olds that will be receiving red clothing and jewellery over the next couple of days. Often, this takes the form of red underwear, or more simply a necklace or bracelet of red thread. (This is sometimes worn around the waist too... what is that called? A waistlet?)

I think some folks will need all the luck they can get over the Spring Festival holiday period. This is the time when fireworks pop in the sky almost continuously for several days. You can here rockets banging off your apartment windows, explosions in the stairwell outside your apartment door. It amazes me that after the Spring festival celebrations that most kids still have ten fingers. The fireworks you can buy on the street here are big. Really big. And cheap.

And apparently the done thing is to launch them from your hands. None of this stick-it-in-the-ground and light-it-with-a-long-fuse technique. Or is it actually fairly safe, and I've just been wrapped up in a little too much cotton wool by life in Britain? The public firework displays can be spectacular, but again, I was able to get a little too close to the action for the liking of my inherent Britishness. These mighty fiery beasts were launched from just a few metres away, exploded directly above peoples' heads, and then the crap (often still on fire) rained down on everyone - brilliant!

Spring festival in Xi'an (2008)

Getting older (or younger)

How old are you? Seriously, are you sure about that? If you come to China, you might be a different age. And your birthday might be on a different day.

Back in Blighty I was, of course, born at the ripe old age of 0. You are 0 when you are born, and then twelve months later you celebrate the anniversary of the day of your birth: It's your 1st birthday, you are 1 year old. Right? Right?

Well... maybe. Sometimes. But not all the time. In China, you are born at the age of 1. So people are a year older than they would be if they were born outside of China. I was fearful of my big three-oh approaching while I was in China, but without me even realising it I had already crossed that threshold and was hurtling towards my 31st! Hmm... Actually, nowadays this isn't strictly true, especially if you live in a city like I do. But elsewhere, further afield, the old system is still very much in use.

Then there's the subject of birthdays. My girlfriend isn't entirely clear about when hers is. She claims that since she wasn't born in a hospital, she has no birth certificate. And the date of birth on her ID card is her lunar birthday... (It's also on her passport, and who knows how many other things... is that entirely legal?) So each year she gets a phonecall from her mother to wish her a happy birthday, but it's a different date each year - but it's the same date on the lunar calendar.

Moral of the story: Travel to China if you want to be older, leave China if you want to be younger again. I once had a theory that you could age backwards by crossing the international dateline from west to east many times in succession. I'm sure I could tie this into the Chinese age system if I could be bothered.