Eastern Dragons

The dragons of China, Japan and Korea are all slightly different – and of course each land believes that all Eastern Dragons originated there. A nice overview of Eastern Dragons, their differences, the types of dragons, life stages and other interesting information can be found on her Black Drago pages at Eastern Dragon Overview. Look here for her details on Dragon Types.

The Circle of the Dragon by Kylie McCormick (drago) looks like “the place” to go for online information on Eastern Dragons. Amanda and Donna Quinn have other pages full of information on Eastern Dragons and their anatomy and lots of linked pages from the Somerland Gallery home page. I liked the Sommerland and Black Drago sites because they give references for the information they have.

Clair Russell has some dragon illustrations – and more dragon links. I like someone else's Chinese Dragons' Physical Description page - although perhaps it is because when you move the cursor 5 little dragons follow it around. (I did not see any references of bibliography on this webpage but I may have missed it.) The page seems to have been set up originally in honor of Chinese New Year 2000/4698 , The Year of the Metal Dragon.

I also like this Legend of the Chinese Dragon.

These pages are full of information. Some of it explicitly said it was free to use for educational purposes, but if you want to use any of it, be sure to follow the copyright and reference information for each page. For more see Chinese Dragon Culture.

Future Dates

Saturday, February 18, 2007 - Year of the Boar (Fire Pig)

Thursday, February 7, 2008 - Year of the Rat - "The First Year" - (Earth Rat)
Monday, January 26, 2009 - Year of the Ox (Earth Ox)
Sunday, February 14, 2010 - Year of the Tiger (Metal Tiger)
Thursday, February 3, 2011 - Year of the Hare (Metal Hare)
Monday, January 23, 2012 - Year of the Dragon (Water Dragon)
Sunday, February 10, 2013 - Year of the Snake (Water Snake)
Friday, January 31, 2014 - Year of the Horse (Wood)
February 19, 2015 - Year of the Ram (Wood)
February 8, 2016 - Year of the Monkey (Fire)
January 28, 2017 - Year of the Rooster (Fire)
February. 16, 2018 - Year of the Dog (Earth)
February 05, 2019 - Year of the Boar (Earth)

January 25, 2020 - Year of the Metal Rat – “The first year”

To determine the dates and animals for any Lunar New Year from 1645 to 2644, see:

http://www.romanization.com/chinesenewyear/ 

Sunday, January 29, 2006 - Year of the Red Fire Dog - (Chinese Year 4704)

Year of the Dog begins Jan. 29, 2006

The Year of the Dog begins on January 29, 2006. (Chinese Year 4704)

This means that February 12^th ‘should’ find you preparing for the Lantern festival which begins on the 15^th night, which is February 13^th this year.

To see a Chinese calendar for January & February 2006, go to:
http://www.chinapage.com/astronomy/calendar/2006/sc-2006-1.pdf
http://www.chinapage.com/astronomy/calendar/2006/sc-2006-2.pdf

There is a special name for the first day of the new year - but you should be able to see the character for 2 (二), on January 30th, and for 3 (三) on January 31st.

For more on Chinese calendars see:
http://www.chinapage.com/astronomy/calendar/calendar.html
http://www.new-year.co.uk/chinese/calendar.htm