Well, it's about that time to start signup for the "Baren Chinese New Year
card exchange". That's a long title !
Currently we have about 45+ members signed up for "2004 Year of the
Monkey". Signup is closed for 2004. If you are still working on your
Monkey prints and/or are getting ready to mail them to the distribution
list please try to do so before the end of this year ....otherwise....
according to old Chinese legend.... I think you are going to have some
very bad luck next year ;-)
If you need more info on how these informal exchanges are run go to the
link below. If you participated this year and need the name and addresses
for this year's distribution list....go print it now....a new signup page
will go up in about a week or so. The idea is to send one of your 4X6"
prints/cards to each of the members in the list.
http://www.barenforum.org/new_year/index.html
This is our sixth year doing the New Year exchange and those of us that
have participated since the start have a very nice collection of
prints/cards. We will finish our first pass thru the exchange cycle in the year 2011. WOW !!!! Since this coming year, 2005, marks the halfway point....perhaps we can
plan some special activities/exhibitions/get-together's/whatever to help
celebrate the first six years of our project. Ideas ?
I will have the prints from this year's Monkey exchange on display in
about a week or so....and at that time we'll announce open signup for the
next exchange. This is a very good & informal way for new members or
newbies to get into exchanging prints. This coming year is the Year of the Rooster.
Any questions or suggestions are very much welcome....links to previous
years prints:
2000 - Dragons,
http://www.skokienet.org/bandits/jcrstuff/dragons.html (takes a while to load )
2001 - Snakes,
http://www.skokienet.org/bandits/jcrstuff/snakes/
2002 - Horses,
http://www.skokienet.org/bandits/jcrstuff/horses/
2003 - Sheep - tba
2004 - Monkey - tba
thanks...Julio Rodriguez (Skokie, Illinois)
For those of you that may not be familiar with the history:
"The Chinese Lunar New Year is the longest chronological record in history,
dating from 2600BC, when the Emperor Huang Ti introduced the first cycle
of the zodiac. Like the Western calendar, The Chinese Lunar Calendar is a
yearly one, with the start of the lunar year being based on the cycles of
the moon. Therefore, because of this cyclical dating, the beginning of the
year can fall anywhere between late January and the middle of February.
This year it falls on February 12th. A complete cycle takes 60 years and
is made up of five cycles of 12 years each.
The Chinese Lunar Calendar names each of the twelve years after an animal.
Legend has it that the Lord Buddha summoned all the animals to come to him
before he departed from earth. Only twelve came to bid him farewell and as
a reward he named a year after each one in the order they arrived. The
Chinese believe the animal ruling the year in which a person is born has a
profound influence on personality, saying: "This is the animal that hides
in your heart."