LAMORINDA WEEKLY | Getting your house in order to welcome in the Year of the Earth or Golden Pig

Ruled by the Tiger month (Feb. 5 to March 5), Chinese New Year normally falls in February each year. Many families prepare ancestral altars and display photos, offerings, flowers and foods including sweets and cakes and wine, to honor the ancestors in the family. To welcome in the new year properly is to do it with great ceremony and celebration. People often take the entire month of February off and travel long distances to reconnect with family and friends. Parades, parties, visiting, dinners and red envelopes for the kiddos are all part of the annual festivities.

Protective amulets for a difficult or inauspicious years are also equally prepared and in place before the New Year begins. The house is thoroughly scrubbed, repairs are made, pantries are cleaned and old pantry items are discarded and restocked, and it is also observed that family members wear their finest garments, or at least one new clothing item on New Year's Day. The house must be free of all 2018 dirt and grime to properly welcome the new year. All of the energetics you wish to be blessed with all year should ideally also be part of what you create inside your heart, and in your surroundings on New Year's Day.

The Yin Earth Element of Pig year is fully balanced by Earth's yin/yang properties so 2019 will feel more stable, natural, and the yin/feminine presents as less serious, and demanding than 2018 Dog year. The more celebratory Pig vibe is a welcomed shift after last year's intensity and seriousness. (To see more about the Earth or Golden Pig year as it relates to our personal lives go to: www.lamorindaweekly.com/archive/

issue1223/Celebrating-the-Year-of-the-

Earth-Pig.html)

Happy New Year!