JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Even if you don’t know much about Lunar New Year, you probably remember that China locked down travel last winter during what is the most important holiday on the Chinese calendar -- the equivalent of Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s Eve combined.
One year later, China has taken largely contained coronavirus through sometimes draconian lockdowns and intensive contact tracing, yet travel is still strongly discouraged as the two-week Year of the Ox holiday that begins Friday. Only people who show a negative COVID-19 test use public transportation, yet the Ministry of Transport estimates that 1.15 billion trips will be made during the holiday travel period this year.
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Through the rest of the world, parties and travel are also discouraged as COVID-19 casts a shadow over Lunar New Year for the second year in a row.
What is the Chinese zodiac and why an ox?
Feb. 12 marks the beginning of the xin chou year, according to the lunar new year cycle. “Xin” represents the heavenly stem for the element metal, while “chou” is the earthly branch symbol for ox, making it the Year of the Metal Ox.
We asked Thierry Chow, a Hong Kong-based feng shui master, to share her thoughts on what this means for the year ahead.
“The ox, in Chinese culture, is a hardworking zodiac sign. It usually signifies movements so, hopefully, the world will be less static than last year and get moving again in the second half of the year,” Chow told CNN.
What’s your Chinese zodiac sign?
Many around the world take the 60-year calendar very seriously and believe each person’s own birth sign will be affected differently by the year’s heavenly stems and earthly branches. So the calendar plays an important role in making huge life decisions for the year ahead, such as whether they should get married or start a business.