Countdown to Chinese New Year

The Chinese New Year usually falls in February. This year, it will be on Monday, January 23 (in China’s time zone, strictly speaking).

Like it was to me, this could be a surprise to some. But this is not the first time that it happened. It also happened on Jan. 28, 2009.

However, this will be the first time that it will be observed as a public holiday in the Philippines.

The Chinese New Year this year will be called the “Year of the Dragon,” the “Water Dragon” in particular.

Since the color of water in the “Five-Elements System” is related to black, 2012 will also be known as the “Black Water Dragon” year.

Cultural background

The Chinese New Year is given the most importance among Chinese holidays, according to Chinese tradition and history.

As applied, the Chinese calendar makes use of the lunar-solar system to mark the beginning and end of the year in addition to the so-called “stem-branch system” to count the days, months and years.

As such, it does not always begin on the same date each year. It can fall, according to some references, between January 21 and February 18 of the Gregorian calendar.

The Chinese New Year is also referred to as the “Lunar New Year.” It always happens on a New Moon. More specifically, it occurs “on the second New Moon after the winter solstice” of the western zodiac sign Aquarius, according to sources.

In China, the Chinese New Year is better known as the “Spring Festival.” This is because the Chinese calendar always begins in spring.

The Chinese calendar is composed of 10 “stems” and 12 “branches” connected with the “Yin-Yang” and “Five Elements” theories.

To digress, in Chinese philosophy and religion, the “Yin” is the dark, negative and feminine factor. The “Yang” is the bright, positive and masculine factor. “There interactions influence the destinies of creatures and things.”

The “stems” are named by the “Yin-Yang” and “Five Elements”—metal, water, wood, fire and earth.

Following this practice, the sequence and order of the years are designated as follows: Yang Wood; Yin Wood; Yang Fire; Yin Fire; Yang Earth; Yin earth; Yang Metal; Yin Metal; Yang Water, and Yin Water.

With the “branches” of the Chinese calendar that uses 12 animal names, the Chinese calendar will begin every 12 years in the following order and sequence (they accordingly arrived to bid farewell to Buddha before ascending to heaven): Rat; Cow; Tiger; Rabbit; Dragon; Snake; Horse; Sheep; Monkey; Chicken; Dog; and Pig.

Aside from the “stem-branch system” designations to one’s birth, it is also believed that the animal ruling the year at which one is born will influence the person’s life.

The “stem” and “branch” are used together to form a cycle of 60 years, which—if we are to follow the popular school of thought—begins with the “Wooden Rat” and end with the “Water Pig.”

Based on this, 1924 to 1983 is a complete 60-year cycle. This means 2012 will fall as the “Male Water Dragon, the 29th of the Stem-Branch system.”

Because “water” is connected to “black” in the “Five-Element System,” the year 2012 will also be known as the “Black Dragon” year.

Horoscope tales

It may also surprise you to know that the first day of the “Year of the Dragon” will begin only on Feb. 4, 2012, 15 days after Jan. 23. Thus, the Chinese New Year is celebrated for 15 days. This is because Feb. 4, 2012, is the first day of the “Start of Spring” or the first day of the astrological year.

This rule in the Chinese calendar also explains why a person born after the Chinese New Year day in January 2012 (but before February 4), the animal that will rule is the “Rabbit” and not the “Dragon.”

With 2012 being a Dragon year, which contains the elements of earth, water and wood, it is believed that your luck in 2012 will be “pretty good” should your birth date have any of these elements.

Bottom-line spin

One week to the Chinese New Year, the market continues to trade vigorously. Value turnover last week amounted to P32.09 billion on a volume of 17.81 billion shares.

Compared to the market transaction the week before of P23.71 billion on a volume of 17.39 billion shares, total business continued to grow by 35 percent on almost identical volume. It is apparent that the average value of stock prices last week continued to increase further.

Beefing up this robust market performance is the stronger foreign investors’ investment participation. Unlike the week before when foreign buying amounted to P10.61 billion and foreign selling at P7.68 billion only, foreign buying and foreign selling last week amounted to P16.31 billion and P10.22 billion, respectively.

Because of the interplay of these factors, the market was able to hit new record session highs during the week and establish a new all-time high on Thursday.

Quite a worry, however, is that the market slowed down and ended lower again at the close of trading last week like it did in the previous week.

If this is any indication of the market’s trend and behavior, the market may possibly trade vigorously again this week all the way to the Chinese New Year but may move sideways to decline right after.

(The writer is a licensed stockbroker of Eagle Equities Inc. You may reach the Market Rider at [email protected] or directly at www.kapitaltek.com.)