2024 is the Chinese New Year (aka Lunar New Year or Spring Festival)of the Wood Dragon! It is also known as Yang Wood on Dragon, or Jia Chen 甲辰 in Chinese. The year of the Wood Dragon begins on February 10, 2024 (until January 28, 2025).
My 2020 Blog concentrated on some of the history of the Chinese New Year. In the 2021 Blog, I wrote about the traditions, legends, and myths surrounding Chinese New Year. In my 2022 Blog and 2023 Blogs, I provided some fun facts (including the legend about the order of the Zodiac animals noted below) and the effect of the pandemic on the celebration. This year, I decided to concentrate on the “animal of the year”, as well as some significant dates. You can, if interested, click on the above links for more information about the history and traditions of the celebration.
Unlike the Solar Calendar, the Lunar calendar has variable dates that depend on the phases of the moon. The dates don’t usually match the Gregorian calendar. For example, these are the actual dates for the last six Dragon years:
2012: January 23, 2012 – February 9, 2013
2000: February 5, 2000 – January 23, 2001
1988: February 17, 1988 – February 5, 1989
1976: January 31, 1976 – February 17, 1977
1964: February 13, 1964 – February 1, 1965
1952: January 27, 1952 – February 13, 1953
The next Year of the Wood Dragon will be 2084, which is 60 years away.
2024 is forecast to be full of opportunities, challenges, and change! This sounds like a good thing, especially if you were born in the Year of the Monkey, Rooster, or Pig. It should be fairly lucky for those born in the Year of the Tiger, Rabbit, Snake, or Dog. If you were born other years, several challenges might arise and you should work harder to achieve your goals than you did last year!
Keep in mind though that since the the Chinese Zodiac Year starts on Chinese New Year, depending if and when you were born in January or February, you could be a different animal! Because of the characteristics of Dragons, many people choose to have their babies in Dragon Years.
Here’s some information that makes it even a bit more complicated: In Chinese element theory, every zodiac sign is associated with one of five elements: Metal (1940, 2000), Wood (1964, 2024), Water (1952, 2012), Fire (1916, 1976), or Earth (1928, 1988). That means a Wood Dragon only comes once in a 60-year cycle. The most recent Wood Dragon was 1964. The personality of a Wood Dragon is a bit different than other Dragons. They are more introverted, less enthusiastic, and don’t usually enjoy good relationships.
The Dragon years are 2012, 2000, 1988, 1976, and 1952 and so on. In Chinese mythology, Dragons have great power to control wind and rain, soar through the skies, communicate between heaven, earth, and humans in order to bring good weather, and turn over rivers and seas, as well as bringing prosperity to the world. Of course, these would be important to an agricultural society. Dragons are considered “auspicious and extraordinary”, talented, majestic, powerful, noble, honorable, lucky, and successful.
Characteristics of people born in the Dragon years: fearless, adventurous, tenacity, ambitious, intelligence, enthusiastic, dominant, charismatic, independent, and confident. Interestingly, some perceive Dragons as irritating, arrogant, aggressive, and not open to constructive criticism. However, they are very loyal and generous to their friends! Dragons don’t see themselves as arrogant, dominant, and aggressive. They just don’t want to be “normal” in the traditional sense and they like to take risks.
For Dragons 2024, red and purple will be luck (and hopefully avoid trouble). You can wear these colors or even decorate with them to promote financial wealth.
Here’s a list of a few famous people who were born in Dragon Years:
Charles Darwin: born on February 12, 1809, an Earth Dragon
Bruce Lee: born on November 27, 1940, a Gold Dragon
John Lennon: born on October 9, 1940, a Gold Dragon
Vladimir Putin: born on October 7, 1952, a Water Dragon
Some ancient history:
In ancient times, emperors were considered real dragons and Chinese people were assumed to be their descendants. In order to worship the Dragon’s dignity (and divinity), they decided to put the Dragon in the Zodiac. Since that time, it has been the most popular zodiac sign/animal in China.
In one of my previous blogs, I talked about an old myth where the Jade Emperor held a race to decide the order of the 12 animals in the Chinese Zodiac. The winner of the race would be first. One would assume the Dragon would be first but he was not. The story goes that while he was on his way, he came upon a village suffering a terrible drought and famine. He blew clouds and made rain and, thereby, solved their problem.
He then came across a village with a flood. He solved their problem by opening his mouth to absorb the water and moved the flood waters out to sea. And, last but not least, as he was approaching the end of the race, he noted that Rabbit was being chased by a wolf. He dealt with the wolf and let Rabbit go ahead. Of course, Rabbit finished the race before Dragon! This myth depicts Dragon as having a generous and helping nature.
Year of the Wood Dragon 2024 is pretty unusual because it combines the Dragon’s power and Wood’s creativity. 2024 is predicted to be a time of innovation, problem solving, new opportunities, growth, and one to create value.
Don’t forget, no matter what Zodiac sign you are, you become a year older on Chinese New Year!!!!
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