Here is wishing you a wonderful New Year, full of energy, new inspiration and happiness! 2017 is the Chinese Year of the Fire Rooster and their new year started on 28 January.

According to legend, the Lord Buddha summoned all the animals to wish him goodbye before he departed the Earth, but only twelve animals came to bid him farewell. He rewarded them by naming a year after each one in the order that it arrived. Hence the first year belonged to the Rat, then came the Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Sheep, Monkey, Rooster, Dog and Boar. This formed the basis of the twelve animal signs of the Chinese Zodiac. The animal ruling the year in which a person was born has a major, profound influence on his or her life.

About this year, 2017, the year of the Fire Rooster, the Chinese say that people will be more polite and less stubborn, but at the same time they will also have a tendency to complicate things. It will also be a year governed by orientation towards progress, honor and maximum integrity.

Happy, happy New Year!