happy new year!! lunar new year that is.....the biggest holiday in korea. new traditional clothes are bought, special food is cooked, ancestors and elders are bowed to and celebrated- those both dead and alive, children get money in exchange for bowing so deep to their olders- all the way to the floor deep, and it is a four day weekend (depending on the year) where everyone has off school and some off work. it is nowhere near as big as it in china but then a country with a billion people is far more likely to celebrate big than a country of 20 million people. we are two days into the year of the ox which means my four day weekend is over and i work tomorrow

i was born in the year of the horse, which i've known since i was about 11- thanks to my family's eating at a chinese restaurant three times a week for years in my childhood. my horoscope for the year of the ox:

Things are looking up. Oxen admire your stamina and ability to undertake hard labor without a whimper or a whinge. This then should be a terrific year for Horses. No interference. No meddling in your business. No directives. However, Ox years are not brilliant for the Horse’s romantic life. You may indeed fall in love this year. And when you fall, you crash. Thunderously.
But this year, the more passion you throw at your chosen significant other, the less the person seems to want to cozy up to you. You can avoid being disappointed in love by simply leaving your hormones at the gate and running the race alone. Your professional picture bodes nothing but success. So long as you apply perpetual elbow grease and show persistence, the Ox will not only stay out of your way, but will applaud you, encourage you and when he can, recommend you highly to any influential people you may need to know in order to advance your career.
Health? Nothing serious or life threatening is visible on the surface. But you really ought to look after yourself better. Horses tend to think they are invincible and rarely, if ever, bother going to doctors or visiting other health practitioners. Avoiding the symptoms you have been living with now for far too long without a medical opinion or two could lead to a chronic illness (or worse) which will stay with you for at least the next dozen Chinese years.
Basically, I don't know why I ever tell you Horse people to DO anything. You are doers by nature and you DO things all the time. Trouble only arises when someone else suggests you do something you don't want to do. You simply will not do anything you do not wish to do. Whatever you undertake, you do well and thoroughly. The way you work when you do work would put even the Ox to shame. But you do what you want, when you want to do it - and only when you feel like it.
Your love life may be static this year. You financial picture however picks up straightaway when the Chinese year begins. You will eventually make some extra money doing something you love to do. It may be teaching a skill or taking care of someone who is ill or consultant on a startup that's in trouble. But whatever it is, you like doing it and... as with the rest, you are excellent at what you love to do.


hmm, all in all....it could be worse!