Happy Fire Horse Year! 🧧

Happy Fire Horse Year everyone!🔥🐎

The combination of fire (passion, vitality) and horse (confidence, dynamism) points to an energetic year ahead.

This year, many celebrations converged:
The new moon marked the beginning of Eclipse season, Valentine’s day and German Carnival all overlapped each other.

Having experienced Spring Festival for the first time in China last year, I felt quite nostalgic and homesick (or is it wanderlust?) in the days leading up to it. While lanterns and festive decorations were visible around every corner in China, here in Germany there is none of it.

I did my best to revive a little festive atmosphere with my parents, within our four walls.

We crafted lanterns, dressed the living room in red, and of course made dumplings.

On New Year’s Eve, we had fish for dinner — a custom rooted in the blessing 年年有余 (nián nián yǒu yú): may every year bring abundance.

The character for abundance, 余 (yú), sounds identical to the character for fish, 鱼 (yú).

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in 2024, i celebrated on Madeira
Celebrating Lunar New Year 2024: Year of The Wood Dragon