In the first week of February, we not only celebrated my newest book, Fur Love Or Money, but we also celebrated the Lunar New Year. My daughter was born in southern China, and we’ve celebrated the Chinese New Year every year since she was a baby.
In the Chinese Zodiac, each year is represented by an animal. This year, 2024, is the Year of the Dragon. Dragons are intelligent, courageous, and confident.
I’ve heard several different stories about the origin of the Chinese Zodiac, but my favorite comes from a guide we met in southern China. As the story goes, the Jade Emperor decreed that the years on the calendar would be named for the animals that had taken part in the Great Race, each one’s place determined by the order in which they reached the emperor. The trek included crossing a river. The cat and the rat hitched a ride on the back of the ox, who, it turned out, was very good-natured. (As someone who met several oxen in China, that’s not how I would describe them!) Just before they reached the other side, the rat pushed the cat into the water, where it drowned. That’s why cats loathe both rats and water to this day. And why there is no cat in the Chinese Zodiac.
The rat took first place, the ox second. The tiger, hare, and dragon were next. The dragon would likely have been in first place, but it had stopped to bring rain to a drought-stricken village. The snake and horse were in sixth and seventh place, followed by the goat, the monkey, the rooster, and the dog. The pig came in last. It had fallen asleep.
In China, the New Year festivities last for fifteen days. We generally celebrate for just a day, although I do use the tradition that the house should be cleaned before the new year to get everyone to tidy up. Traditional wisdom holds that cleaning sweeps away the bad luck of the previous year.
Food plays a big part in Chinese New Year celebrations, including ours. We give tangerines to our friends to wish them a sweet life. We eat noodles, which symbolize our hope for a long life. (It’s bad luck to cut them, by the way.) A whole chicken is a popular dish for celebrating the new year. It represents togetherness and family. I confess I don’t cook it the traditional way, with the head and the feet still attached. And while we eat tofu at other times, it’s not part of our New Year’s meal. White food—and clothing—is thought to be bad luck.
I’m not a superstitious person, but I enjoy the traditions that are part of Chinese New Year. As an Asian friend explained, all we’re really doing is giving fate a gentle push in the direction we’d like it to go. And maybe we are.
Gong Xi Fa Cai!
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
ABOUT FUR LOVE OR MONEY:
Secondhand shop owner Sarah Grayson and her rescue cat, Elvis, sniff out the suspect in this new, delightful Second Chance Cat Mystery from New York Times bestselling author Sofie Ryan.
Sarah Grayson is taking a break from her bustling secondhand shop in small-town Maine to spend time with a friend and her dog. But their purr-fect visit comes to an end when the dog leads them to a storm cellar on a nearby property, where they discover a dead body.
The deceased turns out to be a sticky-fingered financial adviser who swindled millions from investors and who has been presumed dead for almost three years. Unfortunately, suspicion falls on the owner of the property where the body was found—and that owner is a good friend of Charlotte’s Angels’, the senior citizen sleuths who work out of Sarah’s shop. It’s all paws on deck, as the Angels are determined to clear his good name. But with a tight-lipped widow, a possibly shifty sister, and a slew of unhappy investors in the mix, the list of murder suspects seems endless. Sarah, Elvis, and the Angels have a lot of webs to untangle before they can catch the culprit.
PRODUCT DETAILS
Mass Market Paperback | $9.99
Published by Berkley
Feb 06, 2024 | 288 Pages | 4-1/8 x 6-3/4| ISBN 9780593550243
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