THE CHINESE NEW YEAR CALENDAR

Chinese New Year isn't celebrated on the same day like New Year of the western world. This is because the Chinese use the lunar calendar – so New Year depends on the cycle of the moon and falls on a totally different day each year.

Lunar New Year 2025 started on 29 January, and marks the start of the Year of the Wood Snake. 

1965 was the last year of the Wood Snake. The Snake’s reflective and transformative energy helped shaped a year of cultural shifts, social change and geo-political impacts in 1965.

Martin Luther King’s work to organise, articulate and mobilise communities resulted in a pivotal moment for the Civil Rights Movement. The Vietnam War played a crucial role in shaping the geo-political landscape of the world. America’s increased military presence in Vietnam in 1964 marked a turning point in the conflict and proved to be a defining moment that altered international relations and global conflicts for years to come.

In many western countries, snakes are associated with evil and temptation, but in Asian culture, snakes hold a more complex and varied symbolism. They are simultaneously ssociated with harvest, procreation, spirtuality, and good fortune, as well as cunning, evil, threat and terror.