The Year of the Dragon

According to the Chinese zodiac, the Year of the Dragon has just started. In Eastern philosophy, the Dragon is a symbol of good fortune and I am a Dragon myself so I figured it was a good omen to finally get started on this new Blog.

I honestly didn’t know anything about the Chinese zodiac –or any other zodiac for that matter, until I decided to write this post. And truth be told, I never anticipated this zodiac thing to be so darn complicated. It turns out that the Chinese zodiac (actually widely popular in many East-Asian countries) relates each year to an animal and its reputed characteristics, according to a 12-year cycle. Basically what it means is that we all have an “animal” year based on the year we were born and that every twelve years, we meet our birth sign again.

The twelve Chinese zodiac signs are in order: rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, sheep, monkey, rooster, dog and pig, each associated with specific attributes. Chinese people believe that a sign is an abbreviated way of characterizing an individual’s personality.

Now, here comes the tricky part. The Chinese New Year is determined by a lunisolar calendar (a calendar where a date indicates both the moon phase and the time of the solar year) so it falls on different dates each year. The date is sometime between January 21 and February 20 of the Western calendar. Interesting, isn’t it? Anyways, the New Year of the Dragon officially started on January 23, 2012.

So what’s so special about the Dragon? Well for one, it is the only legendary animal of the Chinese zodiac. It is considered as a divine beast, symbol of power, energy and good fortune rather than as a threatening evil like in the western world. According to Chinese astrology, a dragon person is mostly innovative, enterprising, passionate but also tactless and quick-tempered. And in all modesty, I must say that it sounds very much like me, especially the quick-tempered part.

But wait, there is more! The main characteristics of the Dragon sign are indeed tempered by one of the five Chinese elements (Metal, Water, Wood, Fire and Earth) overlaying a 5-year cycle of characteristics onto the original 12-year cycle. Now if that is not complicated, I truly don’t know what is! So I’ll leave it to this: I am a Wood Dragon, I am supposed to appreciate art and creativity and have the ability to build a happy life.

So to honor my Wood Dragon person and welcome in style the luckiest year of the Chinese zodiac, here are some inspiring pictures of vivid pink and emerald green. Pink because it is my happy color and green as a symbol of abundance, prosperity, hope and life.

Images (clockwise from top left):
Foo dogs via The Vintage Laundress, Dragon fruit via Flickr, Necklace by Soradesigns, London home of fashion designer Matthew Williamson via This is Love Forever, Bright pink blouse with green pendant via Gary Pepper Vintage, Paris home of interior designer Christophe d’Aboville via The Apartment Therapy