#INTHEAIREVERYWHERE
Thursday
January 30,
2025
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#INTHEAIREVERYWHERE |
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| Vol. 24 No. 4 | Thursday
January 30,
2025 |
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Stake The Year By The Beast |
As Lunar New Year dedicated to The Snake arrived this week we are thinking that here in America and elsewhere in Europe and other locations snakes have long been identified with evil and temptation. And to be honest the Dragon, whose year we are about to leave, has not been perceived as a benign entity either, at least by Christianity. If you do not share this view, well, just take a look at some of St. George’s paintings… Nothing that could be found in PetSmart . . .  Here
is one:So we leave the alarming Dragon (at least for us) to enter the Year of the Snake today, January 29th, yet for this part of the world it does not seem to be much more reassuring. Without prejudice, one could argue that even in the Bible the Snake actually tempts Eve with the forbidden fruit – an apple? Why an apple, for any good reasons? Now we know that the forbidden fruit was probably not an apple, but here come the Romans and the language they spoke – and we in parts inherited. The quip between malum (evil) and malum (apple tree) was spread all over the Roman empire by the advancing Christianity. As there were no books, because Rome was busy with the marvel of glass, but had no paper, which had been invented in China . . . Well, the entailing confusion between evil and apple spread all over the “known” world, as they called our small continent in those days. The Koran was not clearer, either. In the Al Araf part, this situation is described in full, but the fruit is not identified with certainty. In modern interpretations we can read that the forbidden fruit could have been grapes. We leave it at that, as this could become an entirely different train ride. Going back to the Snake, in all texts there is an almost one to one identification of the snake with Satan. This seems to stay in keeps with the rest of the stories about snakes. Kurt Russell played the movie hero Snake Plissken in “Escape From New York” and, generally speaking in America: “Hey that guy is a real snake” is a warning that something bad could be afoot. Many snakes are poisonous, at times lethal, shall we say more? Yes, there is much more to say! This is not the entire story about the Snake, it is just what we see in our hemisphere. So what’s up with China? How comes Lunar New Year is a Snake that wears a mystical crown and is honored as positive symbolism? Well, first of all according to The Old Farmer’s Almanac, this Chinese Lunar New Year in 2025 is the 4722nd year in the history of Chinese calendar. When you think about it and read up on this holiday period, the Snake has been around for a long time and is based on the Lunar calendar. The Year of Snake follows a 12-year cycle of animal signs as the sixth animal in the round. Snakes to Chinese people since antiquity are simultaneously associated with harvest, procreation, spirituality, good fortune, but also cunning evil threat and temptation. So here we get in synch with the West from some points of view. But good and evil for Chinese are not the same as we perceive them and there are changes in different cultures that matter most of the times. When you think about that, isn’t the good and bad in all creation what life is all about? This is a concept that for the Chinese seems to be clearer than it is on this side of the ocean. Maybe this also has to do with the kind of history your part of the world, i.e. the one you live in, has enjoyed or, at times, suffered. Good and bad are symbols that swiftly find their own place in the Chinese calendar: a good lesson for everybody. Words fly: we left a piece of this story untold! Time we get back to the Romans, for a good reason. As a perspective, in 27 BC at the founding of the Roman Empire, the Chinese New Year was either 2671 or 2464, depending on the calendar used and the year you consider. Interesting here, as Julius Caesar, who had created all the necessary conditions for the Roman Empire to exist, was killed in the famous Senate conspiracy (Tu quoque, Brute, fili mi!) that Shakespeare made immortal, if that was ever required . . . For the record he was born in the year of the Ox, assuming one could use Chinese astrology as arithmetic. Well, after a long civil war, JC’s power was taken over by Augustus, who was the first Roman Emperor that we remember. In principle he was inaugurated in the Year of the Snake, depending of what happens with one year in particular: the year zero. There has been a lot to talk about after Cassini’s introduction of the year zero. After reading much literature, it is not so clear whether 27 BC was a year of the Snake or, in fact, a year governed by the Horse. Anyway what happened in that year 27 BC changed the fate of much of the world for a long period of time, until today and perhaps beyond. As far as we are concerned that was a Snake Year, period. The Lunar New Year Celebration, this week for the record, was designated a Snake Year, or  ,
in the Chinese calendar. Although the exact start date of Chinese New Year
is unknown today, the calendar is based on the reign of the Yellow Emperor,
who is said to have started the calendar in 2637 BC. Chinese New Year celebrations
typically begin on Chinese New Year's Eve and end on the Lantern Festival.
Lunar New Year in 2025 began on Wednesday, January 29th. Traditional greeting
in Cantonese is – spoken phonetically: "Gung hay fat choy!”
Those words say "wishing you a happy new year" or "wishing
you great happiness and prosperity".Great happiness and prosperity is also what intentionally the Year of the Snake should bring and mean to all of us: so please embrace the New Year with hope and confidence. Happiness and prosperity are there, just waiting for you! MLS |
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24 No. 1Lucy In The Sky & AA Cargo Chuckles for January 6, 2025 Air India Launches New Americas Service Delicacies In The Air |
 Vol. 24 No. 2 Port Strike Averted Chuckles for January 14, 2025 EMO Trans By The Book Fruit Logistica February 5 |
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Publisher-Geoffrey Arend • Managing
Editor-Flossie Arend • Editor Emeritus-Richard Malkin |
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