Gong Xi Fa Cai

Welcome, Year of the Wood Horse!
Gong Xi Fa Cai - (Gong Hoy Fat choi)
 May the Horse of Good Fortune run quickly, bringing many blessings of abundance, fortune, wealth & health!

For several years, I've enjoyed following  my friend & Reiki student Gwynne Warner's suggestions for preparing for & celebrating the Chinese New Year, & other Feng Shui (rhymes with 'fun play') cures & celebrations. 

Tomorrow, Thursday January 30 is New Year's eve, in the Chinese Lunar calendar, with January 31 New Year's day! Festivities continue for the next 15 days (New moon - full moon),

Gwynne has a lovely website & store and you can sign up for her newsletter which give suggestions in greater detail! Here's an article she wrote about welcoming the NY from 2013. 
You can also find fun ideas, crafts & pictures for Chinese New Year  on Pinterest. Incahoots has many of the items suggested for celebrating the NY.

Some of my favorites: clean & spruce up as much as possible prior to NY eve, including wash (or paint!) your front door, take out the trash, put out fresh linens, & make your bed; prepare food so you don't have to cook on NY day (especially no use of knives - don't want to 'cut' your luck!)

Have a NY eve feast with friends & family, everyone having a second helping, if they wish, to welcome abundance in the NY year. Have oranges, nuts, sweets on the coffee table, & offer them to any guests who visit.

Give red envelopes with fresh bills or the gold coins (I generally get a roll of $25- from my bank a few weeks ahead) on NY Day to teachers, children, special clients, friends ... My grandkids ADORE this one! Even numbers of $ - 2, 4, 6, or 8 are preferable.

Light candles & incense in a safe place (both NY eve & on NY Day) turn on all the lights & opening your front door & windows, to allow old chi to exit, & new fresh chi to enter! Open the door at midnight, if you're up!

Red's a great 'good luck' colour - get a new red purse or wallet, a new red shirt or dress, if you can, to wear on NY day (Friday the 31st). & get a haircut or pedicure BEFORE the 31st (again, don't want to 'cut your luck') 

Kind words & deeds are especialy important on NY Day, and help set the luck for the coming year.

Besides receiving enevlopes, my grandkids LOVE rolling oranges!! 
Gwynne writes: "Perform 'Rolling in the Wealth' ceremony: Roll 8 cases, or 88 or 8 single oranges (or kumquats) one by one through your front door across your threshold, into your home & through every exterior door, along with real coins (especially the $1 gold coins), Feng Shui coins, chocolate coins & brass or resin ingots. This symbolizes filling your home with abundance of good luck and prosperity. 
You may then share your oranges with guests and as gifts to neighbors."

Lisa Pool, the LAc in our office, & I love doing this at the office as well, & roll them into the treatment rooms, after rolling them through the front door.
 
Gong Xi Fa Cai 

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