WELCOMING THE OX

There's a story about the twelve animals that represent the twelve year cycle in the Chinese calender that I think is cute. Apparently the rat conned the cat into believing that they were supposed to meet up at a different time and date to get picked as the top twelve, which is how the rat emerged as the very first animal in the list, and the cat didn't get a place at all, which is believed to explain the Tom and Jerry-like tendencies we see among cats and rats (Although to be honest, I have never seen any real life cat chasing any real life mouse/rat. Come to think of it, do they really?)

Anyway, tomorrow - Monday, all the Chinese people all over the world will usher in the New Year, the year of the Ox - the second animal in the list (The newspapers ran a list of famous Ox, and one of them happens to be President Obama) What I thought was interesting though, is that late Friday evening, after a meeting with the RnD Manager and the GM, I heard the Rnd Manager inform the GM that for those born in the year of the horse, getting back to work on the 28th was not very auspicious. Now based on that information, I calculated the GM's age to be 43 (or 44 if it's calculated the Chinese way, which I personally think is NOT the way to go as far as age is concerned) Hehehe.

Earlier today, the streets and malls were crowded with last minute shoppers purchasing things for the reunion dinner later tonight, and tomorrow, the people will be dressed in red, lion dances can be seen and heard, and kids (as well as anyone who is unmarried) will be receiving money from their elders in the form of Ang Pau. And as any other festival that we've seen and celebrated so far, everything is commercialized and I wonder if my other twenty something friends who are actually celebrating this festival (and not merely a spectator as I am) feel as excited about it as when they were kids?

Edit: I was born in the year of the Monkey :)