Newsroom

CORVALLIS - Oregon State University will ring in the year of the horse with a China Night 2002 celebration at 6 p.m. on Sunday, Feb. 10, at the OSU Memorial Union Ballroom.

Tickets for the event are $5 general admission, $3 for OSU students and include a variety of food, music and entertainment. Donations of canned food for Linn-Benton Food Share will also be collected.

The OSU Chinese Students and Scholars Association is sponsoring the festivities.

The Chinese New Year is based on the lunar calendar, which has a 12-year cycle. The year flips to 4700 this month --- the year of the horse. People born in the year of the horse (1918, 1930, 1942, 1954, 1966, 1978, 1990) are reputed to be cheerful, skillful with money and perceptive.

The Chinese tradition of naming the year after an animal comes from a story about Buddha. Buddha once staged a gala celebration and invited hundreds of guests, but the only guests that appeared were 12 different animals. To honor each of the animals for their courtesy in attending, Buddha named a year for each animal. The cycle begins with the year of the rat and ends with the year of the boar.