Message from gmzarou

[Anonymous]

Could be useful...

-m@x

The Chinese Lunar New Year

Saturday, January 28, 2006; Posted: 10:03 p.m. EST (03:03 GMT)

(Reuters) -- Here are some key facts about the Chinese Lunar New Year celebrations, which began on Sunday:

# The Lunar New Year, also called the Spring Festival, is the most important holiday for ethnic Chinese and a time when many of China's 1.3 billion people traditionally head to their hometowns to be with family. New Year's Day usually falls on the day of the second new moon after the winter solstice.

# The New Year is celebrated with firecrackers, dragon dances and visits to friends and family. The 15-day New Year season ends with the Lantern Festival, when brightly colored lamps are strung up in parks around the country.

# According to the Chinese zodiac, which is based on a 12-year cycle with each year represented by an animal, January 29, 2006, marks the start of the year of the Dog, which will last for 385 days until February 17, 2007.

# Chinese soothsayers predict that the year augurs well for the global economy but drought and fires could be a problem. Chinese tradition also holds that 2006 will be a year of bad luck for those born under the sign of the Dog.

# Every year the rush of Chinese heading home for the Spring Festival sparks the biggest movement of people on earth, with an estimated 144 million traveling by train during the 40-day peak travel season which began on January 14.

Sources: Reuters, People's Daily Online http://www.english.people.com.cn