Wishing you all the best for the Lunar New Year. Today represents the first day of the new Lunar New Year – Based on the Chinese Zodiac Calendar, 2013 represents the Year of the Snake. 
Often known as the Spring Festival or the Chinese New Year (more recent name since the 20th Century). This Holiday represents the most important economic and social holiday in China. Linked to the lunar-solar Chinese calendar, the time honored holiday was a time to pay homage to household deities as well as to ancestors. It is also a time to bring family together and is one of the largest annual human migrations (in excess of 2BN trips are made during this holiday period). 
If you don’t have your flight, train, boat or bus tickets weeks in advance, you are likely to miss heading home to be with the family or spending time relaxing away from work (more typical with younger generations). While often characterized as the “Chinese” New Year, this close to two week celebration is in fact celebrated throughout much of Asia, however countries with heavy ancestral links tend to celebrate this Lunar holiday longer than others. As this holiday is influenced by the Lunar calendar, the Holiday dates vary year to year. This has an immense impact on the manufacture & movement of goods as so many factories throughout China and Southeast Asia tend to shut down completely often for as long as 2 weeks at a time. The ramifications of this are that in Seasonal Living’s case (as with many other manufacturers and importers), this impacts production and flow and arrival of Spring merchandise. In effect, production is virtually at a standstill through many of our Asian factories for much of February in 2013.
The Lunar New Year is celebrated with many historical and family rituals including rich cultural celebrations such as attending temples which experience thousands of worshipers on the first day of Spring Festival (This Year – February 10)
all clamoring, pushing and trying to offer incense (touxiang) to various deities in temples (essential to ensuring luck for the year) and as a result, at times running the risk of poking each others eyes out from large incense sticks. Other time honored celebrations include red and gold colors signifying luck and prosperity, Chinese New Year foods, which differ in various regions fish is like the Thanksgiving turkey of Chinese New Year. In Mandarin, the word for fish (“yu”) sounds like the word for “leftover,” implying a plentiful year to come. Other typical CNY treats include: taro cake, turnip cake, jau gok (crispy dumplings), dumpling and babaofan (eight-treasure rice pudding). In Mandarin, “niangao” (glutinous rice cake) sounds like “year rise,” signifying a year of progress and prosperity. With its communal spirit, hotpot is another popular eating choice at this time of year. Of course no Chinese New Year or Spring Festival celebrations would be complete without fire works and the constant sound of firecrackers exploding throughout the night and the annual house cleaning tradition of “Huiqi” or inauspicious breaths, which may have collected during the old year. Cleaning is also intended to appease the Gods who are thought to descend from the heavens to make inspections. All in all this is a holiday full of amazing history, culture, time-honored ritual and a time for friends, family and loved ones. Kung Hei Fat Choy to all of Seasonal Living’s business associates and friends and best wishes for the Year of the Snake.