Feng Shui Tips to Prepare for the Year of the Sheep or Goat on February 19, 2015

This time of year my clients contact me to learn what Feng Shui tips they need to do in order to have a great Chinese New Year – and this year we start the year of the Sheep, Goat or Ram on February 19, 2015. Since the energy of a “ram” seems a little too confrontational for me plus it doesn’t seem like the type of energy all my sources say we are going to be experiencing, I’m choosing to say the Year of the Sheep or Goat.

Contented goat

As I shared in my post on December 30 to help people prepare for the Western New Year on January 1, 2015, we can do the same activities as I listed there. Plus we can add some more Asian cultural activities or rituals if you’d like.

The Top Ten Tips are:

1. Do Activities on the Chinese New Year You Want to Do During the Coming Year: It is said anything you do on the first day of the New year you will do throughout the year. If you argue, there will be arguments all year long. If you clean, you’ll clean all year. f you prepare food that day, you’ll be preparing food all year long. If you play and visit with family and friends, you’ll do more of this during the coming year.
2. Clean Your Home BEFORE the New Year: The belief is that by cleaning your home you “sweep away all the bad luck” that accumulated inside throughout the past year. It also makes your home ready to receive the good luck – attracting it into your home and welcoming it. (And don’t clean it the first couple of days of the New Year.)
3. Wash Your Hair BEFORE the New Year: (And don’t wash it for the first couple of days of the New Year since that will wash away your Good Luck.) Getting your hair cut BEFORE the new Year is also a fun way to start the new Year with a fresh New You!
4. Prepare Food for the New Year Celebration: (And stock up on the food so you don’t have to cook for a few days!) Here is where preparing lots of for and having it in the freezer would come in handy. We don’t want to be going to the grocery store either since that would mean more trips tot he store during the coming year.
5. Put Up Red Decorations: Red is the color of GOOD LUCK in the Chinese culture and used in the decorations especially designed for the New Year celebration. If you don’t want to have Asian artifacts all over your home, place some red candles throughout the home, tie red bows on some of your house plants and find a lovely red lamp shade for one of your lamps. You might hang a red tassel from a dresser drawer or on a door handle. Placing a red heart on a north-facing and south-facing window brings exceptional GOOD LUCK.
6. Paint the Door Red: This is a great idea if you can do it, but many people either can’t change the door color or wouldn’t be able to do it for the New Year. If that is the case with you, find a lovely flowering plant with red flowers or a yellow mum (Chrysanthemum) in a red pot outside the front door to attract the good energy to your front door.
7. Place Flowers Throughout the Home: In Feng Shui they say having fresh flowers in the bedroom brings romance, in the bathroom it brings health and in the kitchen it brings loving relationships. You can also have Lucky Bamboo or houseplants instead of flowers.
8. Place a Bowl of Mandarin Oranges, Tangerines or Lemons in the Kitchen: Citrus are considered fruits of abundance whether hang in from a tree or just the plain fruit gathered in a bowl. Place a citrus tree both inside and outside the home if you can. This time of year you can sometimes find the miniature trees at the nursery or flower shops. If that is too much for you, have a large bowl of the rips fruit sitting on the kitchen table or counter. Having a bowl by the front door will also attract GOOD FENG SHUI into and around the home in the way of health, wealth, love, happiness and harmony. Use an even number and eat a pair for Good Luck.
9. Set Out a Tray of Eight Candies or Cookies: In the Asian culture, the number eight is considered a  lucky number. Having something some sweets out means you will have a “sweet” and lucky life.
10. Dragon Dancing, Firecrackers & Noise Makers Ward Off the Bad and Greet the Good: In both Western and Chinese customs the greeting of the New Year is a special celebration. We say, “GOOD-BYE!” to all the old things that happened last year and “WELCOME!” to the New Year filled with hopes and dreams for a better life. In the Chinese culture the fire-breathing dragon burns up all the old energy of the past year. It also lights the path and dances its right up to your front door to show the way for GOOD LUCK to find your door. The firecrackers scare way the bad and make a joyous sound to greet the New Year. Get a bell, temple bells or a wind chime to ring in the New year. Then hang it outside the front door to help show the ways to welcome the New Year.

These are just a few more ideas to help you change the energy in and around your home to say, “GOOD-BYE!” to the old and “WELCOME!” this New Year – The Year of the Goat or Sheep.