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March 28, 2024

5-Minute Expert:

Will year of the sheep bring luck to Las Vegas economy?

Chinese Dragon in The Forum Shops at Caesars

L.E. Baskow

A team with Studio Artefact of Montreal, Canada, works with a crew from The Forum Shops at Caesars to install the head of a massive 950-lb. Chinese dragon display there to celebrate Chinese New Year 2015 and welcome the Year of the Goat on Tuesday, January 6, 2015.

Chinese Dragon at Forum Shops

To celebrate Chinese New Year 2015 and welcome the Year of the Goat, The Forum Shops at Caesars with a team from  Artefact of Montreal, Canada, install a massive 950-lb. Chinese dragon display on Tuesday, January 6, 2015. . Launch slideshow »

Welcome to the year of the sheep/goat/ram.

Chinese New Year runs Feb. 19 through March 3 this year and is one of the most important social and economic holidays in China.

In Las Vegas, it’s also an economic driver. The holiday, in terms of revenue coming into the valley, is second only to New Year’s Eve.

Why? Gambling is part of the annual celebration — the thinking being, if you are lucky during the new year, you’ll be lucky all year.

How and why it is celebrated

Chinese New Year, also known as Spring Festival and the Lunar New Year, began as a way to facilitate agriculture. The celebration signaled the time was coming to till the soil and sow the seeds. The word “Nian,” which has become synonymous with the new year, translates as “ripe grains” in Chinese.

With time, however, legend took over. The story of Nian tells of a mythical monster with the head of a lion and the body of a bull that terrorized villagers. Each spring, a hungry Nian rose from his ocean home and came to shore to eat people and animals. The villagers discovered, however, that Nian was afraid of three things: fire, loud noises and the color red.

Today, to honor the legend, adherents celebrate the holiday by setting off firecrackers, lighting lanterns and adorning their homes in red decorations, believed to bring prosperity and good fortune, and ward off bad luck.

Nian also is thought to be the inspiration for the lion dance, another feature of New Year’s celebrations. The lions are fashioned to look like Nian, and the dance is said to repel bad spirits.

Why the sheep?

Each year in the Chinese calendar is represented by an animal. A person’s animal corresponds to the year he or she was born.

The zodiac serves as a guide for attributing characteristics to people, much like western astrology. Believers say the animals “live in people’s hearts” and have a profound influence on their personalities and destiny.

Feeling lucky?

Here are some traditional ways to celebrate the new year (and what to avoid, too).

Traditions

People exchange gifts during Chinese New Year, the most common being a red envelope filled with money. Older people are supposed to give envelopes to younger people, bosses to employees. The amount included can range from a few dollars to a few hundred dollars but always should be an even amount — especially including a six or an eight, which are particularly lucky. Odd numbers are associated with cash that is distributed during funerals.

• Fish is a must for a New Year’s meal. Why? The Chinese word for “fish” sounds very similar to the Chinese word for “surplus.”

• Dumplings also are a common holiday food because their shape resembles ancient Chinese coins. Believers say eating dumplings will bring wealth in the new year.

• Wear red underwear for luck, especially if you were born in the year of the animal being celebrated.



TABOOS

Rural Chinese have a laundry list of no-nos for the holiday season, tied to superstitions and bad luck. Most urban residents, however, don’t follow such rules.

• Don’t clean the house or wash your hair as you might wash or sweep away your prosperity.

• No crying. Even children are treated with kid gloves to keep them happy and tear-free.

• Pay off all debts, and never apply or ask for a loan during Spring Festival.

• Don’t curse or use unlucky words, including the Chinese word for “four,” which sounds like the Chinese word for “death.”

• Don’t use knives or scissors as they could cut off your fortune.

• It is considered unlucky to greet anyone in their bedroom, so even the sick and infirm get dressed and sit in the living room.

A preview of the year to come

It’s a Chinese tradition to gamble during New Year’s celebrations, a big reason Las Vegas is such a popular destination during the holiday.

Traditionally, Chinese revelers gathered at friends’ homes to place friendly wagers of a dollar or two.

In Las Vegas, the stakes typically are much higher, with many Asian high rollers dropping thousands or hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Gambling is seen as an omen of a person’s luck for the year to come. If they are lucky during the game, they’ll be lucky all year.

The Gold Coast issued Year of the Ram casino tokens to commemorate this year’s Chinese New Year.

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