‘Less desirable': behind lunar new year superstitions of a year of the snake

The Guardian

29-01-2025

At Asiastar Fantasy Inc, a San Francisco gift shop that specializes in Chinese cultural trinkets and décor, customers can choose from a wide variety of red envelopes or pluck a miniature lion dance costume replica from shelves bursting with curios to celebrate the lunar new year. Most animals from the Chinese zodiac are well represented in the gift shop except the one that officially symbolizes 2025: the snake.
'People just don't like the snake,' said Nancy Yu Law, Asiastar Fantasy's owner, about the reptile's negative reputation. When it came time to purchase inventory for her Chinatown shop, Yu Law, 52, stocked limited items emblazoned with images of the snake.
'In Chinese culture, you want to bring a dragon home. You will bring home a tiger or a horse,' she said. 'But you will never want to bring a snake home.'
This year, lunar new year – beginning on 29 January – ushers in the year of the snake, one of 12 animals in the Chinese zodiac. For many in Asian countries and their diasporas, the zodiac shapes not only new year traditions, but also major life decisions.
Believers say the zodiac animal assigned to the birth year can determine a person's personality and romantic compatibility. The zodiac is often used as a cultural bellwether to life's biggest questions: will 2025 be my year? Is this the year to get married or start a family?
For traditionalists, the answer might be no.
'The snake is a less desirable year,' said David Lei, a board member of the Chinese Historical Society of America about the snake's association with misfortune. Because of this, people who adhere to these cultural beliefs might defer decision-making on big life events.
For Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) communities in the US, navigating cultural beliefs about the zodiac is a complex interplay of honoring traditions and new values. Attitudes toward the Chinese zodiac vary widely, said Mario Poceski, a professor of Chinese religious history and culture at the University of Florida.
'Some people are hardcore. Some just think it's a fun thing to do,' said Poceski. 'It's like fortune cookies, right? How seriously do you take it?'
The thousands-year-old cultural practice of using the Chinese zodiac as a life guide is in its gilded age again, especially on social media where zodiac content proliferates.
In addition to predicting personality traits (rats are quick-witted and rabbits are gentle), the zodiac calendar is often used for matchmaking or gauging romantic compatibility. A good match in 2025 might pair someone born in the year of the horse with a person born in the year of the dog. But someone born in the pig year may struggle with a tiger year partner.
Love, in all its complexities, is further complicated by the negative association with this year's cold-blooded creature. In Malaysia, where zodiac beliefs remain influential, wedding registrations and ceremonies have dropped.
For the diverse AAPI community – which is still mostly foreign-born – adherence to cultural practices can snarl up decision-making. Especially when faced with the question: do you really want a snake baby?
'Sometimes snakes are just scary,' said Lei, 75. The reasons are rooted in the reptile's features and defense mechanism – in some species, venom – and its enduring cross-cultural characterization as villains.
In folktales, snakes are often portrayed as cunning and jealous. The creature that brings on the downfall of humankind from the Garden of Eden is often depicted as a serpent. Let's not forget about Medusa's deadly snake tendrils.
Despite their bad reputation, the snake also has positive zodiac symbolism, said Poceski.
'People born in the year of the snake are supposed to be resilient, creative, adaptive and able to overcome all kinds of obstacles and challenges,' he said.
The snake year is generally less popular, said Lei, but people will still get married and have children. Those who defer big life decisions may have more practical reasons.
'Oftentimes you use that as an excuse because you're really not sure if you should marry someone,' said Lei with a laugh.
These cultural beliefs, he said, can make some decision-making easier. It's not you. It's the snake year. You're a monkey. I'm a pig. It's fate.
Even though the snake year is less desirable, the year won't be all bad. In Chinese culture, there are always ways to counter bad luck with some symbolic good luck, said Lei. His wife, Linda Shen Lei, plans to wear red socks all year. Red is a traditional symbol of good fortune.
'Why take chances?' said Lei.
According to the zodiac calendar, there is a difference between the animal and what it symbolizes. As an animal, the snake has a negative connotation, but the snake as a symbol represents transformation, fertility and renewal, said Poceski.
Some even call the snake a mini dragon, said Yu Law, the San Francisco gift shop owner. Of all the animals represented in the zodiac, the dragon is largely the most popular sign.
At Brocade Apparel, Helen Zhou's traditional Chinese wedding dress shop in Monterey Park, California, business hums as usual. Future brides thumb through silky sample dresses and get fitted for their snake year wedding ceremonies.
Zhou has been making qipao, or Chinese wedding dresses, for more than 30 years. The zodiac animal associated with the year has never really been a major factor in her clients' decision-making.
'Most of our clients are not superstitious to that extreme,' said Zhou. 'It's just an old wives' tale that has been repeated a lot. People love having children in the year of the dragon or the monkey. But are they all super successful? No, they're not.'
Dr Martin Luther King Jr and Taylor Swift are high-profile snake babies.
Last year, most predictions of prosperity and baby booms in the dragon year did not pan out. Profits from Yu Law's businesses were down 30%. In San Francisco's Chinatown where she has worked for more than 25 years, other business owners have reported the same, she said.
Yu Law is hopeful that the snake year's promise of renewal will increase her profit margin – even if she didn't stock many snake year products for the Lunar New Year.
In business, it's just another year, another animal, and a renewed chance for hope. But Yu Law's personal philosophy differs slightly.
If her adult sons were to want to get married, she said, she would encourage them to wait until 2026.
'It's going to be the year of the horse,' said Law. 'Everybody loves the horse.'