[Sca-cooks] Once again, Tentative New Year's Menus

[Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius]

On Feb 4, 2008, at 10:34 PM, margaret wrote:

> snip
>> Yeah, I gather that if you're a Mandarin-speaker (i.e. mainland China
>> or Taiwan) it's your Red Year, and if you're a Cantonese-speaker  
>> (such
>> as in Hong-Kong, Kwangtung or parts of SE Asia), it's your Fire Year.
>> The year corresponding to your astrological sign is generally assumed
>> to be propitious, lucky, and a time of great opportunity.
>> Unfortunately, you only get one in every twelve years.
>>
> !
>>
>> Adamantius (who does not get mad when people say, in my home, "Gung
>> Ho, Fat Boy!", but whose spouse curls the lip and snarls a bit...)
>
> I'm curious, do you count starting with the year you are born or the  
> year
> after?
> Margaret

As far as I know, and if I understand the question, you start counting  
in the year you're born. So, on Wednesday night we have the arrival of  
4706, The Year of the Rat, followed by 4707, The Year of the Ox, next  
January 26th.

In general, the primary cycle begins (I'm told) with the Year of the  
Rat, and ends with the Year of The Boar (this would be the equivalent  
of the western cycle beginning with Capricorn, I guess). However, the  
year for your astrological sign (so, for Gunthar, myself and others,  
in late January 2009) is the beginning of your personal cycle.

It's true that there's sometimes  some confusion about things being  
ten years old and in their tenth year, but I don't think that applies  
here.

Adamantius