Get ready for the Spring Festival. Follow the rabbit!

Get ready for the water rabbit — about to jump off after 12 years.

I am a big fan of the 4,700 years old wisdom that is called the lunisolar calendar. Grab your coffee (or make tea) before reading this article. Relax and open yourself to the most common fact on the planet Earth. I will be talking about the relativity of time, but on a different scale. This time I will pull your attention On Calendars! It will be fun as much as informative.

It is the lunar new year or, with the most common name, the Chinese new year is coming.

For a significant number of people in the World (to be precise, a quarter of the world’s 8 billion population, besides the standard Western calendar year), the new year will start on the 22nd of January. Chinese astrology calls this new year “the year of the rabbit” — the fourth animal of their twelve zodiac signs. Each year is associated with one of the five elements in addition to its animal sign. So, this is the year of the WATER RABBIT.

Calendar systems

Once upon a time, there was a lunisolar calendar, in which months are lunar but years are solar — that is weird, isn’t it? But the moon's movements were brought in line with the course of the Sun. The lunisolar calendar was used in the early civilisations of the whole Middle East, except in Egypt and Greece. It is thought to be invented in Mesopotamia back in the 27th century BCE, nearly close to the invention of writing. The evidence shows that the calendar is a contrivance for dividing the flow of time into units that suit society’s current needs at that time. Calendar makers had put time signs offered by nature into the system — such as the Moon’s phases and harvesting times— and they rearranged reality to make it fit society’s constructions.

As a result, the original lunar calendar evolved into the solar universe and ended up in Roman history through the Julian calendar in 45 BCE. The Gregorian calendar (the one we use in most of the world today) is a slight modification and replacement for the Julian calendar in 1582 by Pope Gregory XIII.

Personally, I like to tackle time by Moon’s phases in my ordinary life. They are very simple and holistic. The modern calendar is good for our faithful souls and company accountings. Besides, before time there were seasons.

Spring festival

My call for wilderness, enlighted by the 4,700 years of wisdom, enjoys the practices of the East Asian countries. In this case, it is celebrating the Spring Festival or the Lunar New Year, marking on the traditional lunisolar Chinese calendar.

The Spring Festival marks the end of winter and the beginning of the spring season!

The first day of the Chinese new year begins on the new moon that appears between 21 January and 20 February.

In 2023

21 January is New Year’s eve — the new moon appears!

22 January is the first day of the new year — WATER RABBIT jumps off.

And the northern hemisphere prepares for the spring — the new beginnings!

It is a new year…

Water Rabbit

In China, the rabbit is known as the symbol of longevity, peace and prosperity. The rabbit zodiac sign is a symbol of hope.

Check this visual guide for the Year of Rabbit 2023.

It is a good one to have a warm-up.

Also, the last water rabbit year was 1963.

Here is an excellent source to remember what happened 60 years ago.

To give you some inspiration;

The iconic mission statement “We will put a man on the moon by the end of this decade” was pronounced by JF Kennedy in 1962, and he was assassinated in the following 1963. Beatlemania's years started with the Beatles, and “Tito” was named “president for life” in Yugoslavia.

What next

The twelve-year cycle loop started in 2020 with the first animal Zodiac sign, the RAT, followed by OX. This year it was the TIGER. Typically, the rat is a disruptive sign with expected unrest — look what happened with Covid. The Ox represents hard work — I could not agree more for 2021. Tiger is courageous, strong, and a beast of all animals. The world significantly shifted into conflicts, crises and so on. I believe RABBIT will bring in more hope, energy and inspiration for humanity (At least, I feel this way when I imagine a rabbit).

Let us hope for the best. The world needs hope more than ever. Humanity is at crossroads. In 2020, the RAT year was a new beginning — a new era! I believe it is the beginning of the new post-globalisation world order coupled with massive digital disruption.

It is time to get ready for the new beginning. Or at least feel that it is a new beginning for many people.

Practitioner’s corner

One reason I am into the lunar time and Eastern wisdom of astrology is my time well spent in South East Asia some 20 years ago. My wife, Pinar and I got married in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, in 2002. At that time, we were younger and much more flexible in life. We had the chance to practice a first-hand experience of the Easter culture by simply living in it.

We loved it!

Secondly, I am addicted to the wilderness. Let me explain this one a bit.

I have had two significant leaps in my adulthood life.

The first one is from SPORTS to FINANCE. I started my early career as a professional athlete. I was a basketballer. Then I transformed into a financier as an investment banker. This was the first leap, and it kept me in a safe space for almost 30 years.

And the second one is from FINANCE to BUSINESS. In 2018, my domesticated mind abandoned me forever. I lost sight of the context of the traditional economy and societal patterns, ditched the capital markets, and moved to collaborative commons — the wilderness! Now I am practising a second career as an independent professional and trading with my own company. Once you make such a profound change, everything changes with it.

My life transformed from an office mouse to a rabbit living in the wilderness. The transformation took me out of my comfort zone with a sudden change. I have been living a life entirely different than in my previous settings. In this new life, the nature and powers of wilderness are helping me so much more than I could imagine. After a while, there is no way back, and you burn the boats. That is precisely what happened to me. I am now addicted to my life in the wilderness with all the company associated with it.

If it resonates with you, here are a couple of practical tips for you to do over this spring festive course. Here are three very simple practicalities beyond all the details and wo-woos of Chinese astrologists. We love it this way…

#1

Take your time for deep cluster cleaning over this week and do it until the eve of the 21st of January. Whatever you do, listen to your inner voice. It will tell you precisely what not to carry to the new water rabbit year. Get the big shit out of your body and clean your space first!

#2

Have FUN with your loved ones on the eve of the 21st of January, and make a lot of noise!!! Rock the house… And offer gratitude for the past souls just by remembering them. Pray for them. Give some money to young ones in red envelopes right after midnight. It is traditional to give in the multiples of eight, such as eight coins or end with the number eight — like 88! This year we will try chocolate coins instead.

#3

Do not clean your house or your body, mind and spirit on the 22nd of January— the first day of the new year. Just keep everything as is. Do not work! Take a long walk in nature. Just remind yourself to be open to whatever comes in the new year. Believe in the rabbit in the wilderness. Give her the lead on this auspicious day! Jump off, rabbit!