Chinese New Year Part 2

A couple of more things about Chinese new year.  First of all, this is the year of the horse.  I went to Walmart recently and was looking at all of the new year decorations they had for sale.  I couldn't tell by looking at them which year this is.  The chinese "zodiac" has an animal assigned to every year.  Each animal represents different personality traits.  Many Chinese believe this, and marry according to which animals get along best.  I hadn't heard yet which year this was, so I stopped a lady in the store and asked her.  She pointed to a stuffed animal nearby and with a sort of "duh isn't it obvious?" tone in her voice said, "Horse!"  I said, "Oh, this is a horse?  I thought it looked more like a snake".  She looked at me like I was nuts.  But actually it did look more like a snake than a horse.  Oh well. 

So when it's your zodiac sign year, you are supposed to wear red underwear for good luck.  When you walk through the shopping mall, you will see lots of red underwear on the mannequins in the windows.  I couldn't find my size even if I wanted red underwear, because Chinese are very thin.  But I am slightly obsessed with the red socks.  I have been buying them to give away, and even kept a pair for myself, but I haven't tried to see if they even fit.  But they all have embroidery on the side, that usually is the character for blessing. 

 

The character is upside down because Chinese look at this character kind of like we in the West look at lucky horseshoes.  They hang it upside down so the luck won't run out.  :)  I guess it also helps so that when you are looking down at your socks, you see the character right side up.  ;)