Happy Year of the Rat, I know a few 1960’s Rats and they are amazing.
The Rat is the first of all zodiac animals. According to one myth, the Jade Emperor said the order would be decided by the order in which they arrived to his party. The Rat tricked the Ox into giving him a ride. Then, just as they arrived at the finish line, Rat jumped down and landed ahead of Ox, becoming first.
The Rat is also associated with the Earthly Branch (地支—dì zhī) Zi (子) and the midnight hours. In the terms of yin and yang (阴阳—yīn yáng), the Rat is yang and represents the beginning of a new day.
In Chinese culture, rats were seen as a sign of wealth and surplus. Because of their reproduction rate, married couples also prayed to them for children.
Recent years of the Rat are: 1924, 1936, 1948, 1960, 1972, 1984, 1996, 2008, 2020.
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Quirky me doesn’t like to relinquish Christmas easily, so Saturday I decided to take down my Christmas tree. The outside of the house had been deSantafied, so that the neighbors weren’t aware of my quirkiness. I attacked it and got it done, but being aware of the need to be festive, for me and my sister, I decided to decorate for Valentines and Chinese New Year! I was cleaning, arranging, and redecorating. I went to a local Asian owned dollar store for more decorations. I bought some Lucky Money bamboo, 2 beta fish, and assorted Valentines paraphernalia, I spent an hour shopping for a Lucky Cat statue with a waving arm. I worked feverishly on getting it just right, and all of this not knowing it was the Chinese New Year. I thought the Chinese New Year was always in February? Well, apparently not.
Kung Hei Fat Choi
(As I was writing Amazon just delivered my Lucky Cat statue)
Art:
Count Yourself Lucky
Merry Sparks
bluebutterfliesandme 