Don’t worry – the crouching tiger can unleash the hidden dragon – bringing along the advent of good luck and keeping the fierceness of the tiger under control.

Chinese the world over celebrate the New Year with the universal rituals of eating, gift giving, and spending time with family.

At this time, family members who are no longer living at home make a special effort to return home for gatherings. During the celebrations, ... Read More »]]>

The aggressive nature of the Tiger is upon us – arriving on February 14, 2010 – as the Chinese Lunar Year of 4708 – The Year of the Golden Tiger.

Don’t worry – the crouching tiger can unleash the hidden dragon – bringing along the advent of good luck and keeping the fierceness of the tiger under control.

Chinese the world over celebrate the New Year with the universal rituals of eating, gift giving, and spending time with family.

At this time, family members who are no longer living at home make a special effort to return home for gatherings. During the celebrations, people hand out lucky money in red envelopes called ang pow. The cash is placed only by even numbers with 8 being a popular number in these red packets, which are decorated with lucky symbols, Chinese characters, or deities. The Chinese regard the color red as a protective color, representing auspiciousness, prosperity, and with the power to get rid of evil spirits. The illustrations used on the front of ang pow bestow blessings and good wishes of longevity, prosperity and great health.

The origin of the Chinese New Year Festival can be traced back thousands of years through colorful legends and traditions. One of the most famous legends is that of Nian, a fast and ferocious beast, which the Chinese believe eats people on New Year’s Eve. To keep Nian away, red colors are pasted on doors, torches are lit, and firecrackers are set off during the night, because Nian is said to fear the color red, the light of fire, and loud noises.

As the legend goes, a long time ago the Nian, this strange creature appeared in China and horrified the people by eating men and animals. The word Nian in turn sounds like the Chinese word for year. When the Nian appeared, neither the fox nor the tiger could battle the Nian successfully and in despair the people asked the lion for help. The lion shook his mane, rushed towards the Nian and wounded it. The Nian ran away suddenly but it announced to return for taking revenge.

A year later the Nian did come again. This time the lion couldn’t help the people. He was too busy with protecting the emperor’s gate. So the villagers decided to do the job themselves. Out of bamboo and cloth they produced an image of the lion. Two men crawled inside it and approached the Nian. The lion pranced and roared and the monster fled away again. This is the reason why on the eve of the Chinese New Year, lions always dance. They are frightening evil away for yet another year.

Gong Xi Fa Cai

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Edward C. Patterson has been writing novels, short fiction, poetry and drama his entire life, always seeking the emotional core of any story he tells. With his eighth novel, The Jade Owl, he combines an imaginative touch with his life long devotion to China and its history. He has earned an MA in Chinese History from Brooklyn College with further postgraduate work at Columbia University. A native of Brooklyn, NY, he has spent four decades as a soldier in the corporate world gaining insight into the human condition. He won the 2000 New Jersey Minority Achievement Award for his work ... Read More »]]>

Edward C. Patterson has been writing novels, short fiction, poetry and drama his entire life, always seeking the emotional core of any story he tells. With his eighth novel, The Jade Owl, he combines an imaginative touch with his life long devotion to China and its history. He has earned an MA in Chinese History from Brooklyn College with further postgraduate work at Columbia University. A native of Brooklyn, NY, he has spent four decades as a soldier in the corporate world gaining insight into the human condition. He won the 2000 New Jersey Minority Achievement Award for his work in corporate diversity. Blending world travel experiences with a passion for story telling, his adventures continue as he works to permeate his reader’s souls from an indelible wellspring.

Published Novels by Edward C. Patterson include No Irish Need Apply, Bobby’s Trace, Cutting the Cheese, Surviving an American Gulag, Turning Idolater, The Jade Owl (Jade Owl Legacy Series Book I), The Third Peregrination (Jade Owl Legacy Series Book II and Southern Swallow Series (Book I – The Academician). Coming soon: The Dragon’s Pool (Jade Owl Legacy Series Book III), Southern Swallow Series (Book II – The Nan Tu; Book III – Swan Cloud; Book IV – The House of Green Waters), Look Away, Silence, Belmundus, The Road to Grafenwoehr, and Green Folly. Look also for The People’s Treasure (Jade Owl Legacy Series Book IV) and In the Shadow of Her Hem (Jade Owl Legacy Series Book V). Poetry books available are The Closet Clandestine: a queer steps out and Come, Wewoka – and – Diary of Medicine Flower.

From The Jade Owl: In China they whisper about the Jade Owl and its awful power. This ancient stone, commissioned by the Empress Wu and crafted by a mineral charmer, long haunted the folk of the Middle Kingdom until it vanished into an enigma of legend and lore. Now the Jade Owl is found. It wakes to steal the day from day. Its power to enchant and distort rises again. Its horror is revealed to a band of five, who must return it to the Valley of the Dead before the laws of ch’i are set aside in favor of destruction’s dance. Five China Hands, each drawn through time’s thin fabric by the bird, discover enchantment on the secret garland. Five China Hands, and one holds the key to the world’s fate. Five China Hands. Only one Jade Owl – but it’s awake and in China, they whisper again.

Professor Rowden Gray has come to San Francisco following a new opportunity at the East Asian Arts and Culture Museum, only to find that the opportunity has evaporated. Desperate, he means to end his career in a muddle of pity and Scotch, but then things happen. He latches on to a fascinating young man who is pursuing a lost relic that Professor Gray has in fact been seeking. Be careful for what you seek – you may just find it. Thus begins a journey that takes the professor and his companions on a spirited adventure across three-thousand miles of Chinese culture and mystery – a quest to fulfill a warrant long set out to ignite the world in myth and legend. The Jade Owl is the beginning of a series – a legacy that fulfills a terrible truth; and in China, they whisper again.

BOOK I of THE JADE OWL LEGACY SERIES – and NOW available on the Kindle: The Jade Owl
BOOK 2 of The Jade Owl Legacy Series – THE THIRD PEREGRINATION go to: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001Q3M9QI