新年快乐 !

After walking to three Chinese restaurants yesterday and finding them all closed, I realized that it was the Chinese New Year.

I met up with a friend from China who explained that this is the year of the Ox in the Chinese Zodiac, which just happens to be MY year - so I'm hoping for a lucky one. It's based on a 12-year cycle, so if your age is a multiple of 12 then it's your year too!

Here's some more information I found about what this year holds, what my Ox friends and I have in common, and a few of my own side notes:

Year Ahead:
The OX year is a conservative year, one of traditions and values. This is not a year to be outrageous. A slow but steady year. (AKA don't invest in stock market)

This OX year will bring stability and growth where patience and diligence pays off. (or haste, in cases of trillion-dollar bank buyouts)

This is a year of Harvest - when we reap what we have sown. Take care of business this year, do not let things slide. (Or else the deep pit of recession will swallow you whole)

People Born in the Year of the OX:

Characteristics:
People Born in the Year of the OX are stable, strong, dutiful, reliable, tenacious, practical, industrious, determined, honest, loyal, sincere, persevering and down to earth and tolerant (aren't practical, down-to-earth, and tenacious sort of the same thing?). They can sometimes be lonely but they form firm bonds with home and family. The OX people cherish their private lives and are not usually very adventurous (this is where I have to leave my Ox people). They can be loners (oh, come on now. I have friends!). They know the way to succeed is by a slow, steady, sustained effort (are they calling me slow?). OX people are great traditionalists, they like the familiar (unless, that is, they decide to pick up and move from their home country to Sweden).