#45 About Chinese New Year + My Greeting Cards 🎊 我做的春节贺卡~祝大家狗年大吉🐶...

Chinese New Year and Spring Festival

What's up fellow Steemians! For some of you out there, the coming big day might be Valentine's Day, while for Chinese people worldwide, the fast approaching important holiday is the Chinese New Year. February 16th is the day Chinese New Year falls on in 2018. And the Spring Festival will last to March 2nd, about 15 days in total.

In China, most working people will have a week holiday around the New Year, starting from New Year's Eve or a bit earlier. This holiday is normally called Golden Week Holiday of Spring Festival. Just like the Christmas holiday for westerners, Spring Festival is of great importance for Chinese family reunions.

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The Lunar Calendar

So why does the 2018 Chinese New Year land on February 16th instead of January 1st? It is because the Spring Festival in China is based on the lunar calendar, which is decided by the monthly cycles of the Moon's phases, also known as synodic months. As a result, the Chinese New Year has no exact date each year, but it mostly falls on a day in January or February in Gregorian calendar, roughly the same dates of Aquarius sign in the Western Zodiac.

Actually, there's also a Chinese Valentine's Day(Qixi/Qiqiao Festival) originated from a beautiful romantic legend, which falls on the 7th day of the 7th month on the Chinese lunar calendar, so it's usually some day in July or August in Gregorian Calendar.

And a fun fact here: my birthday is February 7th, which fell on the Chinese New Year's Eve of my birth year. Imagine when other Chinese were wolfing down the grand meal on New Year's Eve, my mom was struggling hard to give birth to me. What a great mom! :D Last week on my birthday, I got birthday wishes from some friends, but not from my mom. After I told her about this "news", she was quite surprised, saying "Oh really? I only remember it's on New Year's Eve, so it will be on February 15th this year." I guess I can't blame her, since some older generations in China are more used to the dates on traditional lunar calendar.

㊗️各位同胞春节快乐，狗年大吉！因为这些年客居海外，最近几年是在南美和澳洲过的春节，周围没有喜庆年味的拍照内容，所以下面是我用最近在澳洲拍的一张照片做的贺卡，希望你们喜欢！=) 😘

照片上的景点是澳大利亚大洋路上有名的十二门徒岩，由于长期的海水海风侵蚀，现在只剩八根石灰岩柱了。这里通常风大浪急，雾气弥漫，我在冷风中凭栏远眺了一会儿，正好看到这群黑色的海鸟飞过，于是定格瞬间。

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The Twelve Apostles in Australia

Since I haven't lived in China for years, I don't have any new-year themed pictures at hand for my blog images. I can imagine all the red dog-themed decorations all over China now. In fact, I spent the Chinese New Year in hot summers of the Southern Hemisphere (South America and Australia) for the past few years. So please excuse me and enjoy this view of The Twelve Apostles from Victoria, Australia. I made 2 greeting cards out of the photo that I took last month.

This is the star sight on the star route - the Great Ocean Road. What makes my shot a bit special is the flock of black birds flying by. =) Originally there were twelve limestone stacks off the shore, but due to the gradual erosion caused by the sea and wind, now only eight Apostles left.

Have you been to the eight apostles on the Great Ocean Road? And which greeting card do you prefer? The first portrait one or the second landscape one? :D

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I mentioned above red dog-themed decorations, since 2018 is the Year of the Dog according to the ancient zodiac animal signs in Chinese culture. I will talk about this old tradition in my next post about Chinese New Year. =)

What do you know about the Spring Festival in China? Tell me your thoughts and experiences in the comments below! Stay tuned and see you soon!