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- Subscribe - Contact Us - Rate Card - Place an Ad Archives Revels Classifieds Real Estate Menu Guide Wedding Weather Subscribe Contact Us February 1, 2006 Food & History New year means it’s Dog time Jeff Cheek Last Sunday was Chinese New Year. It came almost a month after the western new year. Why? Because our new year is based on the sun. It takes a year for the earth to orbit the sun, so ours is a solar calendar. The Chinese New Year is based upon the moon’s orbit of our planet. It is a lunar calendar. China, Japan and any country with a sizeable overseas Chinese population still celebrate this ancient holiday which originated in China thousands of years ago. It begins one of the 12 animal-cycle years. 2005 was the Year of the Cock. Sunday was the first day of the Year of the Dog. An ancient legend says that God asked all the animals to come to him, promising the first dozen a special gift. The first to arrive was the rat, then the ox, followed by the tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, sheep, monkey, cock and dog. The last to arrive was the boar. This established the order for the animal cycle calendar. The first year is the Year of the Rat; the last is the Year of the Boar. Since God is fair and impartial, he gave the same gift to each one. He named the year after the animal and allowed it to impart certain of his characteristics to the people born during his year. The Year of the Cock ended last week. What are some typical traits of a person born last year? Here is a partial listing: “Cock-year people are deep thinkers. They are busy and devoted to their work.” But “cock-year people do not trust other people and prefer to work alone.” What about babies born this year? Dog-year people “have a deep sense of loyalty and duty, are very honest, and always do their best.” Yet “dog-year people are somewhat selfish and terribly stubborn.” In rural Japan you still hear people ask “What is your year?” That’s another way of asking your age because it brackets it within a 24-year cycle. Example: You answer that you were born in the Year of the Tiger. That was 1974, 1986 or 1998. You could be 8 years old, 20 or 32. Your physical appearance will tell your age. Even today, a few rural Japanese families still follow the ancient custom of arranged marriages, and the lunar calendar once had a decisive role in these unions. It was widely believed that any boy who married a girl born in the “Fire Horse Year” which came every 60 years, would die young. Parents went to great lengths to conceal this fact. No one would risk marrying their daughter. A Japanese friend told me that in the old days, the birth rate for girls in a Fire Horse Year was almost zero. Parents moved her birthday up or back a year to avoid this curse. The calendar specifies which are the best birth years for your spouse, and also the worst. I was born in 1929, the Year of the Snake. My wife, Denise, was born in 1937, the Year of the Ox. Many years after our marriage, we read our fortunes. The best marriage for an Ox year person is “someone born in the Year of the Snake.” As for me, the best wife would be someone born an Ox or a Cock-year person. Obviously, but accidentally, we had made the right choice. We’ve been married 47 years. Chinese Chicken Salad is tasty and easy to prepare. Chinese Chicken Salad 2 cups cooked chicken breasts cut into bite sized pieces 1 package cooked and drained ramen noodles 3 green onions, sliced into 1-inch lengths 1 cup finely chopped cabbage 1 cup small, deluxe green peas, thawed Sauce Make sauce by combining flavoring packet from ramen with 4 tablespoons rice vinegar, 2 tablespoons each sesame oil, sugar and water. Mix well. Toss other ingredients, add sauce and serve. DailyTidings.com Home Page Archives | Revels | Classifieds | Real Estate Guide | Weather | Subscribe | Contact Us Copyright 2005 Ashland Daily Tidings and Ottaway Newspapers All Rights Reserved Deep Muscle Stimulator Ceramic Piggy Banks FREE Entertainment Guide Women's & Men's Slippers Accelerate Weightloss Products Backpacks Online Pharmacy Vegas Travel Guide Search Engine Optimization Student Loans Hotel & Airline Reservations Hammocks Water Filter Helzberg Diamonds Online Casinos Community Bonus Casino Mortgage Calculator Security Systems Mailing Lists Click Here Advertisement .:Advertisements:. Site Search: RESOURCES - Mail Tribune News - ODOT Road Cams