Chinese New Year Exodus

Malaysians have started gearing up for the Rat Year. Banks, post offices, shopping malls were jam packed with people doing last minute transactions and shopping. Roads leading to main shopping malls such as the Curve and Mid Valley were crawling bumper to bumper for long stretches.

The exodus home too has begun. Already more than forty accidents have been reported, with motor cyclists heading the list. Hopefully, the plan to allocate time slots for different flows of traffic will help ease congestion.

Watch out for snatch thieves whose modus operandi is to prey on loners. A man was robbed at knife point at the wet market whilst a lady was forced to hand over her withdrawal to thieves. In both cases, the robbers worked in pairs. Heard this while waiting to pay my bills at the post office.

The Year of the Rat (2008)

Chinese New Year falls on different days each year, usually between January and February. This is because its calculation is based on the lunar and solar movements. This year, Chinese New Year falls on the 7th February, which is a Thursday. Since Malaysians enjoy two days of official holidays, it’s going to be a four day bonanza.

Also known as the Lunar New Year, its origin dates back to 2600 BC and is the oldest chronological calendar. It was launched by Emperor Huang Ti, the first emperor to unite the whole of China. If you visit Xian and the Bing Ma Yong, you will see the grave of this great but dreaded emperor.

A complete cycle of the Lunar New Year takes 60 years of five cycles of 12 years each. Each year is based on one of the twelve animals and this year is the Year of the Rat. This means that if you are born in the Year of the Rat and happen to meet someone also born in this animal year, you can roughly gauge his/her age, using the number twelve as the basis of your calculation.

Previous Rat Years include : 1924 1936 1948 1960 1972 1984 1996