The first day of the 2016 Chinese New Year is on February 8, 2016 in China’s time zone. This day is a new moon day, and is the first day of the first Chinese lunar month in the Chinese Lunar Calendar system. The exact new moon time is at 22:40 p.m. on 8-Feb-2016 in China’s time zone.
The Year 2016 is the 4713th Chinese year. The Chinese believe that the first king of China was the Yellow King (he was not the first emperor of China). The Yellow King became king in 2697 B.C., therefore China will enter the 4713th year on February 8, 2016. Also, the Chinese Year uses the cycle of 60 Stem-Branch counting systems and the Red Fire Monkey is the 33rd Stem-Branch in the cycle. Since (60 *78) + 33 = 4713, therefore 2016 is the Fire Monkey year, which is the 4713th Chinese Year.
2016 is the year of Monkey. Some people say 2016 is a Red Monkey or Fire Monkey year. This is because the Stem-Branch Calendar is connected to the Five Element theory. Chinese calendars used the Stem-Branch system to count the days, months and years. There are 10 Stems and 12 Branches in this system. Stems are named by the Yin-Yang and Five Elements (Metal, Water, Wood, Fire and Earth).
Monkey King – Journey to the West
When it comes to the monkey, Chinese immediately think about the Sun Wu-Kong, the Monkey King. On February 8. 2016, Chinese New Year Day, the movie of The Monkey King 2 will be released in China. This movie is a sequel to 2014 Monkey King (watch trailer).
Monkey King is a main character in the Chinese classical novel Journey to the West. Monkey King was born from a stone and acquired supernatural powers from a Taoist master. It’s very naughty, went to heaven, stole an elixir of life, ate many peaches of longevity, and then rebelled against heaven. All guardians or generals of heaven cannot conquer the monkey. Finally Buddha tamed and jailed it in the bottom of Five-Element mountain. The monkey had to wait Master Xuan-Zang monk for 500 years to rescue it. Then the story of Journey to the West began. The monkey had to escort the master monk to bring Buddhist sutras from India to China. At the time of the journey, the stone monkey was about 850 years old.
The name of Sun Wu-Kong was given by its Taoist teacher who taught it the immortal and magic powers. The monkey learned 72 different body transformations into animals or objects. It can duplicate itself using his hairs. It can travel on the cloud as the transportation. It can jump 108000 Chinese miles (54000 km) away just turn a somersault. It has x-ray eyes and can can see through any disguise or transformation of demons. Its ears can hear the voices from miles away. It can shrink its body and transform as a small flying animal. So it can get into the demon’s body.
The weapon of Monkey King is a golden staff, which was a post of the palace of Dragon Kingdom in the ocean. The post weights about 8100 kg. It can grow as tall as you want or shrink to the size of a needle. It’s very heavy and Monkey King keeps it in its ear.
The story of Monkey King or Journey to the West has been adapted for TV drama, movies, cartoons and opera so many times.
Read more: http://www.chinesefortunecalendar.com/2016.htm
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