Today’s New Moon marks the beginning of the Lunar New Year – public holiday in several countries in East Asia – Tet in Vietnam, the beginning of the Spring Festival in China and Seollal in Korea. In China alone, the Spring Festival is the biggest human migration in the world as over 400 million people will empty the cities and return to their rural homes across the country.
Each year in the Chinese calendar is represented by one of twelve animals in the Chinese Zodiac. 2025 is the Year of the Snake. It’s all about “shedding toxicity in personality, in character traits,” said Jonathan H. X. Lee, an Asian and Asian American studies professor at San Francisco State University whose research focuses in part on Chinese folklore. “It’s shedding the ego, letting go of the past, letting go of anger, letting go of love lost,” Lee said. “This is the year where that kind of growth — personal and macro, internal and external — is very much possible.”
Lee said that the snake is an auspicious sign for inner work, whether it’s releasing unrealistic expectations of loved ones or getting rid of bad habits. People born in snake years are thought to do “whatever it takes to accomplish a goal.” “They are known to have this innate potential to be really successful, because they can think outside the box, and they will endure and they will persevere,” Lee said.
Cultural appropriation…
The FREEZE!!
Nope.
Here’s a fun video by Jon Batiste. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3YHVC1DcHmo
