Happy Lunar New Year! To celebrate the Year of the Snake, we’ve added some Spring Festival decorations!
While most countries now follow the Gregorian calendar, where 1-year is based on a single revolution of the Earth around the Sun, many countries throughout East Asia originally followed the Lunar calendar, which is based on the phases of the moon. Most traditional festivals in these countries are still based on this calendar, including the Lunar New Year, which marks the beginning of a new year in the Lunar calendar.
Alongside the Lunar calendar, there is also a 12-year cycle commonly known as the Chinese zodiac, where each year is assigned an animal. The order of these animals is based on an ancient tale known as the Great Race, where 12 animals took part in an epic race to see who would finish first and claim the first year in the cycle. In this story, the sneaky snake hides within the hoof of the horse until the very last minute, then slithers out to scare the horse and crosses the finish line before it. In this cunning way, it was able to snatch 6th place right out of the horse’s hooves. This is apparently the reason why horses will always stomp on snakes when they see them!
Within certain cultures that follow the Lunar calendar, people born in a certain animal year are believed to take on certain characteristics from that animal. While the snake has been much maligned throughout the world as a cunning and evil creature, it is widely considered to be the most enigmatic creature according to the Chinese zodiac.
People born in the Year of the Snake are said to be intuitive, sensitive, highly intelligent, humorous, persistent, artistic, sympathetic, wise, persuasive, and passionate. That being said, those bitten by the Snake won’t soon forget it! Snake people are known for being jealous, suspicious, materialistic, easily stressed, devious, and private. In short, you may want to be careful if you’ve got a Snake as your co-op partner!
While it still carries a reputation for being deceitful, the snake is also seen as a symbol of rebirth, transformation, and immortality in the Eastern part of the world.
What better way to represent the beauty and transformative power of the snake than to transform the hub area! Now you can see the elegant snake carved into the walls of the cave, alongside many other Chinese New Year decorations.
Check out the new Lunar New Year hub here 👇
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