Chinese New Year - 2926-4723! - Year of the [Yin] Wood Green Snake!

Chinese New Year [2025-4723] Year of the [Yin] Wood Green Snake! (15.1.2025)

Wearing red is not limited to red clothes, red socks, and red belts, but can also be red jewellery, red mobile phone cases, as long as the items you carry with you are red.

There are two special days when wearing red is appropriate:

i) The first day of the first lunar month, during the Spring Festival, wearing red can add to the festive mood.

ii) The second is the beginning of Spring. As the beginning of the year, the beginning of Spring means the start of a new cycle.

Within China, there is a custom of “Avoiding Spring” (避春 – Bi Chun) at the beginning of Spring, that is, avoiding offending the numerous “Tai Sui” (太岁 – “Grand Aged”) gods that equate to the 12 stars opposite Jupiter (later expanded to 60 deities) – so people choose to wear red on this day in the hope of bringing good luck.

Everyone shapes their own destiny. Hard work, kindness and wise choices will help you succeed.

No matter what – I hope everyone will experience a smooth journey throughout the Year of the Snake (2025-4723) and welcome the arrival of boundless happiness and good luck!

Family is the Esseence of Qi!

Year of the Green [Wood] Dragon Has Arrived! (10.2.2024)

It is time for Cards, red envelopes, coins, incense and banging the gong! The head of the household (me) – walks around the house banging a small gong over three-laps! The news is said to drive-out the old (stale) ‘Qi’ (Virtuous Energy) and welcome-in the ‘new’ energy – which in this year takes the form of a ‘green’ (wood) Dragon! As the Dragon is elusive, and given that I am embodying its Spirit at this precise moment – I do not appear in the photographs – and yet I am ‘everywhere’ throughout this ancient procedure!

Sutton: St Nicholas Church – Interior and History! (10.9.2023)

Since around 1539 CE (and Henry VIII’s Dissolution of the Monasteries) this Church has been ‘Protestant’. This is a large Church built for a substantial Township and can probably hold at least 100 worshippers at any one time. Bear in mind that there used to be a greater number of Churches in the UK per small area than there are today – and that populations used to be far smaller despite virtually everyone professing a faith. Perhaps the ample and impressive size of the Church is linked to it serving a local population with a higher social status and wealth – requiring certain standards as being seen to be kept! As far as we are concerned, archaeological structures retain the data of the past, and by studying these structures we are able to glimpse into that past!

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