Not a boar-ing year, but pigs may fly!

Happy piggy year: A Vietnamese woman checks out colourful pig figurines at a shop in Hanoi, Vietnam. The coming year is the Year of the Earth Pig and according to thechinesezodiac.org, the year is expected to be ‘a great year to make money and a good year to invest.’ — AFP

AS we all know, the 2019 Lunar New Year falls on Feb 5 this year and will end on Friday, Jan 24, 2020. The new year this year is the year 4717 in the Chinese lunar calendar. Clearly, the Chinese are well ahead of the Gregorian calendar that we are all accustomed to.

It is also widely understood that the Chinese Lunar New Year calendar is associated with 12 Chinese zodiac animals, which also plays an important part in the Chinese culture where the zodiac animals are said to influence wealth, health, career and even marriages, as well as the extension of the family tree depending on how an individual’s zodiac character interacts with the year’s zodiac animal.