NOISY fireworks, dragons, colourful processions and a host of entertainment will herald the start of the Chinese New Year on Monday. The Year of the Ox will begin with a bang in Phuket’s old quarter, which is home to many of Phuket’s Chinese residents. This year, the New Year festivities will coincide with the 10th annual Old Phuket Town Festival which promises to be an electric three days of performances, parades and culinary treats.

The Tourism Authority of Thailand and Phuket City Municipality will host three days of cultural performances between January 31 and February 2.  Traditional Thai and Chinese activities, including Chinese opera, traditional Thai dancing, Kung Fu demonstrations and Chinese folk dancing, will be staged every night between 7pm and 11pm in Queen Sirikit Public Park, Thalang Rd, Krabi, Road and Soi Rommanee, and streets in the old quarter will be closed to traffic to add to the street carnival atmosphere.

Phuket City Mayor, Somjai Suwansupana, said this year’s Old Phuket Festival would be much better than previous years.  The festivities will begin with a street parade, starting at 5pm on Saturday. The parade, which will feature both young and old people wearing traditional Thai and Chinese costumes, will start at Sapan Hin park and finish at Queen Sirikit park. At 7pm, the Minister for Sport and Tourism Phuket, Chompol Sillapaarcha, will officially open the festival.

Following the official opening, 179 dancers from seven provinces in China, will perform a traditional Chinese opera in Queen Sirikit Park. There will be another Chinese Opera the following day as well as Kung Fu demonstrations and Chinese folk dancing. The celebrations will continue on Monday when officials from the Phuket Municipality will welcome in the New Year, and the festival will finish with a Chinese prayer ceremony in front of the Great Ocean Dragon ‘ Hai Leng Ong’ monument in Queen Sirikit park.

Each day, Tor Jan boats will take tourists along the Bang Yai canal which runs alongside the park. There will also be a font of festivities in Phuket Town’s Chinese temples to honour the spirits. Dragon-shaped sweets will be offered to the spirits in Chinese temples and shrines in Phuket Town and Sam Kong. Many of the major hotels and restaurants will also be hosting special events to celebrate the Chinese New year. At Hung Fat’s restaurant in Kalim Beach, a team of six chefs from Sichuan–Chengdu Province China will prepare a special menu to celebrate the beginning of the Year of the Ox. To book, call 076 290 288, or email info@hungfats.com

Out with the old, in with the new

DOORS to shops, houses and businesses in Phuket will remain open at midnight on Chinese New Year’s Eve to let the remnants of last year’s spirits waft away and make way for the positive spirits of the New Year.  New clothes are worn to start the New Year and unmarried juniors can expect to be given one or two red packets filled with money of an even amount.

Odd amounts are only given away at funerals.

The number four is always avoided because it is considered bad luck, but the number eight is considered lucky and eight banknotes can be put into the packets.  On the first day of the Chinese New Year, many Buddhists abstain from eating meat, using knives or making fires, so meals will be prepared the day before. The Chinese calendar features elements of the lunar and solar calenders, and changes each year, depending on the phases of the moon. Chinese New Year traditionally marks the passing of the fall harvest and the arrival of the spring planting season.

The 15 day festival closes with a lantern festival, which is timed to coincide with the first full moon of the New Year.
Throughout the 15 days of festivities Chinese temples across Phuket will be open late, and on New Year’s Eve, late night prayers will be held for people wanting to pray for good spirits in the new year.

Beware of the beast

ACCORDING to Chinese tradition, New Year is a time to celebrate the 15-day battle against a mythical beast named ‘Nian’. On the first day of each New Year that passed and at the end of the winter harvest, Nian, which means simply ‘year’ in Chinese, would roam villages feasting on the flesh of livestock, villagers and their crops.  As the annual massacre drew closer each year, villagers would try to satisfy the beast’s hunger by leaving delicious delicacies on their doorsteps for it to feed on.

Legend has it that a small boy wearing a red cape also tried to scare away the beast, and villagers honoured the boy by adorning the outside of their houses with red lanterns, red scrolls. They also hung rows of red firecrackers outside their houses to banish the beast.

Oxen are born leaders

IN China, everyone knows what year of the zodiac they were born in because it is believed to play a part in influencing character and personality.  People born in the year of the Ox are said to be patient, kind, talented, smart, and successful.  Oxen are born leaders, although they say very little. But when they do speak, they do so eloquently.
Oxen prosper through fortitude and hard work, and, like their namesake, they are capable of enduring any amount of hardship patiently and without complaint.

Rather than seek financial gain in life, the Ox would much rather avoid risks and longs for security.  They are logical, honest, dependable, strong-minded, and stubborn.  When it comes to love, Oxen are most compatible with Snakes, Roosters, Rats, and Dogs and are less compatible with Dragons, Monkeys, Pigs, Tigers, and other Oxen.

An Ox should especially avoid the Ram, with whom they are least compatible.  The ideal partner for an Ox is truthful and gentle, but knows how to cajole and tease, because it is important to be able to put the Ox at ease.  Although practical in many ways, the Ox is often naïve when it comes to love, and it takes time for them to develop intimate relationships and to let their true feelings show.

But once they do, they are completely committed and trust their partner without question.  Famous people born in the year of the Ox include actors Charlie Chaplin, Bill Cosby, Anthony Hopkins, Sissy Spacek, Jane Fonda, Dustin Hoffman, Jack Nicholson, and Meryl Streep.  Former US President Gerald R. Ford and movie mogul, Walt Disney were both Oxen. A new Ox comes along every twelve years.

If you were born in 2009, 1997, 1985, 1973, 1961, 1949, 1937, 1925, or 1913, you are an Ox.