Page 12 - Southern California Gaming Guide • February 2021

Every new year brings us a reminder of change, and a time to celebrate. Hopefully, your New Year celebrations were joyful and fun. Now, it’s time for another New Year celebration: the Lunar New Year. There are exciting Lunar New Year events taking place at featured Southern California casinos in February, all within current safety guidelines.
Check your favorite casino for exciting Lunar New Year celebrations.
Lunar New Year 2021 Year of the Ox at
Barona Resort & Casino
Celebrate the Lunar New Year, the Year of the Ox, from Tuesday, February 16th to Thursday, February 25th at Barona Resort & Casino with a point multiplier, and hot seat and free play drawings, exclusively for Diamond and Platinum Club Barona players. On Tuesdays February 16th and 23rd, it’s Lucky Points from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Diamond and Platinum Club Barona players will receive 8x Points on slots and video keno and 3x points on video poker.
And it’s VIP Lucky Seats and Free Play Drawings on Thursdays, February 18th, and 25th, from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. In VIP Lucky Seats, one VIP hot seat player will be randomly drawn every 30 minutes to Pick an Ox Box from eight boxes for cash or free play. Seven
Lunar New Year is celebrated all over the world, particularly in Asia, in countries with Chinese populations including Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan, Korea, Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines. The Chinese calendar is lunisolar which signifies both the moon phase and the time of the solar year. So Chinese New Year is often called the Lunar New Year.
The Lunar New Year has gained importance through centuries in tradition and myth. Traditionally, the Lunar New Year is a time to honor ancestors. Typically, the night before Lunar New Year family and friends gather over a dinner that includes foods that are thought to enhance wealth, happiness and luck, including noodles, fish, tangerines and sweets. Tradition also calls for a thorough cleaning of the house and clearing of personal matters and debts to avoid any bad luck and to make room for good fortune. People often exchange red paper envelopes (signifying good luck), Hong Bao, that contain cash in specific lucky numbers: multiples of 8’s and 9’s.
Lunar New Year Origin
The Chinese or Lunar New Year was officially recognized in 104 b.c., when Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty established the lunisolar or lunar calendar. Some historians trace the Lunar New Year's origins to earlier in that century. It is based on cycles of the moon and sun, and so does not usually coincide with the Gregorian calendar. Lunar New Year begins on the new moon and continues for an annual cycle.
The Chinese zodiac is based on the lunar calendar and assigns an animal and its attributes to each year
in a repeating 12-year cycle. The Ox is in the second position in the Chinese Zodiac. The 12 zodiac animals are, in order: Rat, Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Goat, Monkey, Rooster, Dog, and Pig.
The Year of the Ox
The 2021–22 Lunar New Year is the Year of the Ox and begins on February 12th with the new moon and ends on January 30, 2022 with the full moon. If you were born in 1925, 1937, 1949, 1961, 1973, 1985, 1997, you were born in an Ox year. People born in the Year of the Ox are thought to be honest, traditional and devoted to family and work. Before taking any action, those born in an Ox year have a definite plan with detailed steps to which they apply their
strong faith and physical strength. As a result, people of the Ox zodiac sign often enjoy great success.
The Year of the Ox is associated with diligence, dependability, strength and determination. These great Ox qualities are sorely needed to recover from the year of the pox, the 2020 Rat year.
Famous (and infamous) Ox Year people include President Barack Obama, born on August 4, 1961, a Metal Ox; Vincent Van Gogh, born on March 30, 1853, a Water Ox; Walt Disney: born on December 5, 1901, a
Gold Ox; and Adolf Hitler, born on April 20, 1889, an Earth Ox.
Look for good luck promotions and special Lunar New Year food at Southern California casinos to celebrate this year.
PAGE 12
SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA GAMING GUIDE
FEBRUARY 2021