Wishing all readers a Happy Chinese Lunar New Year (of the Yin Water Rabbit) 2023!

Wishing all readers of this blog a very happy Spring Festival. Enjoy the holidays and may you all hop into a year of abundance, success, good health and happiness. 

YouTube video in Chinese on Tai Sui for 2023

南懷瑾首次承認！我當年也“犯太歲”，但我用這個方法化解了！2023年前一定要知道！

It is that time of the year when the talk of "Tai Sui" 太岁 heats up in traditional broadcast media and social media here in Singapore. As the year comes to an end and a new year comes in January, it is common for people to feel a sense of anticipation and anxiety over what is to come in the new year. 

The Chinese luni-solar calendar do not use numerals like in the international Gregorian calendar, but assign Tian Gan Di Zi 天干地支 to each year, resulting in a pair of "element" and "zodiac sign" for each year. For example 2022 is the year of the (Yang) Water Tiger and 2023 will be the year of the (Yin) Water Rabbit. This results in relationships between the signs, for example Tiger zodiac sign clashes with the Monkey sign while Rooster clashes with the Rabbit. In 2022, those born in the Monkey years are said to be in a clash with reigning sign of the Tiger in 2022. There are a few types of clashing relationships among the Di Zi / zodiac signs, and they are grouped together as “犯太岁", if the birth year's (本命年）zodiac sign is in a clashing relationship with the reigning year sign (太岁). 

This may seem a bit interesting to people who only use the western Gregorian international calendar as it seems strange to say 12 clash with 6, 1 clash with 7, 2 clash with 8, etc. As mentioned above, the Chinese luni-solar calendar uses a different type of representation for the calendar components; using the Five Elements of the Five Elements Theory. All five elements are in a produce and control relationship. A totally different system from the western Gregorian calendar that uses Indian-Arabic numbers system.

The title of the video is a bit of a "click-bait", but the actual content is good, and narrates about how the late great 南懷瑾 handles a year when he is said to be “犯太岁". The YouTube video above talks about the concept of time and space, and how the time component is equally important as the space component. 

Chinese Lunar New Year Dates for 2023 - Year of the Water Rabbit

春节 2023 / Spring Festival celebrations are coming soon next month in January 2023. The traditional Chinese Lunar New Year Spring Festival has 15 days of celebration. In multiracial and multicultural Singapore, it is allocated 2 days of public holidays. On mainland China, it is an important homecoming event as most people head back to their hometown （家乡）from working in the big main cities or overseas.

The first day of the Chinese Lunar New Year falls on 22 January 2023, which is a Sunday and so the following weekday is allocated a public holiday. Monday itself is also a public holiday and so Tuesday is allocated a public holiday, making it a long holiday weekend of 4 days here in Singapore.  

The eve of Chinese New Year is in itself an eventful day, as it is the final day of "Spring Cleaning", and the final touches are made to prepare the home and office premises to welcome the new year. The dinner on the eve of the new year has special cultural significance in the Chinese festive calendar as it is called the "Reunion Dinner", where once a year all family members are gathered to have a sumptous meal together. 

In Chinese tradition, words withe auspicious meanings are used during this festive period and so many items are embellished with auspicious names in well-wishes. For example, as it is the year of the Rabbit, the Rabbit is embellished with the word "Gold" and so it is the year of the Gold Rabbit. The Jade Rabbit is another cultural symbol with its own mythology story. It is said to reside on the moon making immortality elixirs, and keeps company with Chang-Er who flew to the moon. You will find both Gold Rabbit and Jade Rabbit being used for the coming Chinese Lunar New Year. 

玉兔呈祥

金兔报喜

Although "Gold" is one of the elements of the Five Elements Theory (representing Metal), the word Gold when used for auspicious meanings refers to money and wealth, luxury, grandeur, etc. The actual element accompanying the year of the Rabbit is Water. It is the year of Gui Mao or Water (Yin) Rabbit. The colour represented by Water in the Five Elements Theory is black. Black, although a convenient colour to wear for clothing, is not considered an auspicious colour culturally and so it is used minimally. 

水 (water)，木 (wood)

In the 60 Jia Zi sequence used in the Chinese luni-solar calendar, the combination of Gui Mao / Yin Water Rabbit is 40th pair or 60 pairs starting with Jia Zi / Yang Wood Rat. 

Rabbit itself contains the element of Yin Wood. The two elements for the year are Water and Wood.

Tiger Tail Rabbit Head 兔头虎尾

Solar Term for the beginning of the Water Rabbit year is on 4th of February 2023. Up until 4th of February, it is still the Water Tiger year as the changeover date is the Solar Term of Spring Begins / Li Chun (立春). For those born between the Lunar New Year and Spring Begins / Li Chun, they are said to be "Tiger Tail Rabbit Head". In my consultations for Ba Zi Birth Charts, we use the Spring Begins Solar Term for the year pillar. 

15 February 2022 Yuan Xiao Jie - 15th day of the Chinese Lunar New Year Spring Festival

From preparations for the Chinese Lunar New Year, to the final 15th day of the festival celebrations, at least 3 to 4 weeks of a Chinese person's calendar is dedicated to this festive event. Although the public holidays declared is only 2 days here in Singapore, there are many other customs and traditional practices that take place before and during this festival. It is an important event in the Chinese calendar. 

The meaning of the word 元宵 comes from 元 as in the first (month) and 宵(night). The timing of this event moves to the evening as it is the 15th day of the first lunar month, and that means it is a full moon night. And being practical and appropriate for the night time darkness, lanterns are used to light up the night. In English, this day is also called the Lantern Festival. One of the traditional games is finding answers to riddles attached to the many lanterns. 

This is our very own Chinese "Full Moon Party". 

It also marks the end of the festivities for the Lunar New Year. 

Happy Chinese Lunar New Year 1 Feb 2022

Wish all readers a happy Chinese Lunar New Year 2022

龙腾虎跃

Dragon Soar Tiger Leap

五福临门

5 Good Fortunes arrive at your door

万事如意

May all go according to your wishes

虎年大吉

Big auspicious Tiger year

好运连连

Good luck non stop

2022 - Year of Ren Yin Water Tiger 壬寅

(1) How many "New Year's Day" are there in a year? 

There are 3 "New Year's Days":

(i) 1st of January, 2022 (International Gregorian Calendar)

(ii) 1st of February, 2022 - Lunar New Year (based on the orbit of moon around earth), and 

(iii) 4th of February, 2022 - Li Chun day or Spring Begins solar term, beginning of the solar calendar of the Chinese luni-solar calendar (based on the orbit of earth around the sun).

(Note) Although I use the word "orbit", the ancient Chinese mapped the path of the moon in its waxing and waning phases across the night sky, and likewise used the Gnomon stick's sun shadow to track the path of the sun across the sky. 

For all of the three first-days of the year, you can construct a Ba Zi chart for the beginning hour of the day and analyse them for the 5 elements interaction. It means that there will be 3 different Ba Zi charts with different meanings and interpretations according to different masters. Confusing isn't it? Some masters prefer to just use the sexagenary pair of Tian Gan and Di Zi for the year to get a general "feel" of the elements for the year. 

*add-edit (Dong Zhi/Winter Solstice on December 21st, 2021 was the start of Yang (Qi) and is also considered a new year of sorts by some)

(2) What are the elements of the Water (Black) Tiger year?

Using the 60 Jia Zi sexagenary pairs, the year of 2022 is rotated to the 39th pair of the 60 pairs cycle. (note the 60 pairs cycle are used on a rotation basis for the year, month, day and si-chen/2 hour pillars)   

壬

ren (yang water)

寅

yin (Tiger)

甲

jia (yang wood)

丙

bing (yang fire)

戊

wu (yang earth)

The 4 elements present in the year are

Water

Wood

Fire, and

Earth

(3) Why is it a Black Tiger? 

Each of the 5 elements are assigned an "official" colour, in ancient times, based on the availability of these colours in nature. 

Water - Black

Wood - Green

Fire - Red

Earth - Yellow

Metal - White (or Gold) 

As black is not considered an auspicious colour in Chinese customs, you will hardly hear any mention of  2022 as the year of the Black Tiger. Also, as gold is associated with money and wealth, every year's Zodiac is described auspiciously as "gold zodiac sign" year in Chinese, but that "gold" is more of a Chinese auspicious meaning word than referring to the actual element of the year.  

If you are asking about what auspicious colours are for the Chinese Lunar New Year festivities, you are better off following these Chinese traditions and customs:

(i) It is called the Spring Festival - so your dress up theme is flowers and nature. Bright flowery prints and embroidery to symbolise Spring, new beginnings, rejuvenation and growth.

(ii) The Chinese colour of celebration and happiness is red. That is why you see so much red being used in the Chinese design and decorations.

(iii) Gold represents money and wealth, and so a prosperous colour is considered auspicious.

(iv) Auspicious words - we like to wish everyone a good start for the year, so the Chinese word 福 is always used. "Fu" is one of those Chinese words that gets lost in translation in English to mean good fortune, lucky, auspicious, etc. Like the word "Qi", it encompasses a whole concept. 

(4) What is the year like for 2022?

The elements of the year are in harmony, in a productive cycle flow of water to wood to fire to earth, and (implied) earth to metal. On the surface the signs look good, and that is a welcome news for the current world situation. However (there is a however), the Tiger sign has its secret liaisons, friends and allies besides the usual harmonious connection to Horse, Dog and Pig zodiac signs. 

Beware of the "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" of 2022. There is still an element of surprise.

Each year's sexagenary pair will meets its direct clash by count of six months in a year, and 2022's Ren Yin has direct element clashes when the autumn months come from 7th of August onwards. In Ba Zi birth chart analysis, clashes and combines can be double edged swords, but when just analysing for the year in general, clashes are taken to mean "not good". Care and caution advised especially for the Autumn months starting from August 7th (Solar term Autumn Begins is on this day) onwards.

(5) How is my zodiac sign going to do in 2022?

This is always a very popular topic during Chinese Lunar New Year time, you can see people stopping to read 12 zodiac predictions printed on the Lunar New Year decorations at shopping malls. 

The thing is, what is given free is just very general advice based on data gathered from the Chinese Farmer's Almanac and ancient texts/formula. 

The best way to get accurate information, personalised to you is get a Ba Zi birth chart reading based on your date of birth and time. You can get to know the 10 year and annual triggers that are influencing you and your decision making. 

In the absence of a one-to-one consultation, when reading zodiac predictions for the year, just take them as light infotainment. They are written to be too general to be accurate, and are also too general to be wrong.

That being said, I do write such infotainment articles and this year, you can read it in print on the ANA inflight magazines if you read Japanese. Or, you can catch my tv interview on CNBC Asia. 

In general:

Smooth ride in a turbulent water year for the following 5 zodiac signs

Pig 

Ox 

Tiger 

Rabbit 

Goat:

7 Zodiac signs with a bumpy ride

Monkey (direct clash with the Tiger)

Rat 

Dragon 

Snake 

Rooster 

Horse 

Dog

Talking Lunar New Year 2022 on CNBC Asia - Year of Ren Yin Yang Water Tiger

Mr. Chua on CNBC Asia's Lunar New Year segment 2021 Year of the Metal Ox Xin Chou

If you subscribe to CNBC Asia channel on Starhub (Singapore) or on cable and satellite tv (worldwide), I'll be featured in the Lunar New Year segment on CNBC Asia going through some famous people's birth charts for 2021 at these (Singapore) times:

12 Feb / Friday / 7am, 10:30am, 1pm, 6pm

13 Feb / Saturday / 10:30am, 7:30am

14 Feb / Sunday / 6:30pm

15 Feb / Monday / 10pm