From Beijing to Taipei, via Hong Kong and communities of the diaspora around the world, February 17 marks the beginning of the Chinese New Year: two weeks of celebrations culminating in the Lantern Festival. Fireworks, richly laid tables and family gatherings accompany the start of the Year of the Fire Horse, a combination “reappraised” over time that returns after 60 years and that, according to tradition, will bring energy, change and an overall positive jolt to the rhythm of life.
Date, names and rituals
The date of the Chinese New Year varies each year because the traditional calendar is lunisolar: the new year begins with the second new moon after the winter solstice, so it falls between late January and mid-February. In China and much of East Asia the period is devoted to symbolic renewal: cleaning to drive away bad luck, the eve dinner with auspicious foods-fish for abundance, dumplings for prosperity, rice cakes for progress-red envelopes with money, new clothes and traditional dances to scare off evil spirits. Names and rituals differ from place to place across China’s provinces (and former provinces, such as Vietnam and Korea), but the meaning remains the same: a wish for good fortune and the start of a new cycle.
In the zodiac calendar, 12 animals combine with five elements-wood, fire, earth, metal and water-to form a complete 60-year cycle. The horse symbolizes vitality, freedom and movement; the fire element amplifies these qualities, turning them into passion, urgency and initiative. The Fire Horse is therefore described as a “double energy”: favorable to quick decisions, travel and bold projects, but also prone to impulsiveness and tension.
Symbolic interpretation
The horse sign is generally considered positive: dynamic, enterprising and independent, though with critical traits such as impatience and stubbornness. The last Fire Horse year was 1966, when Japan recorded a sharp drop in births due to the millennia-old superstition of “hinoe-uma,” which held that women born that year would have overly strong personalities. Today the interpretation has shifted and a more symbolic reading prevails: an invitation to harness momentum while balancing excessive energy-much like the yin-yang philosophy, where fire is counterbalanced by water.
On the eve of the celebrations, February 14 at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, President Xi Jinping compared the new year to the country’s path, calling the horse a symbol of “energy, strength and resilience” and urging citizens to move determinedly toward modernization. Yesterday evening, the traditional New Year’s Eve television gala-the “Chinese Super Bowl,” the world’s most watched show-drew hundreds of millions of viewers for four hours of music, dance, opera and comedy, supported by technological stage design and humanoid robots performing martial arts and acrobatic acts. International stars also appeared, from American singer John Legend to Lionel Richie, who reinterpreted “We Are the World” in Mandarin in a duet with Jackie Chan.