It’s the Chinese New Year! According to this ancient culture’s zodiac, we’ve just ended the Year of the Red Fire Monkey. Everyone would agree that 2016 was an unusual year, and the Chinese zodiac forewarned us that the monkey would play a part. Being seen as a sometimes troublemaking, risky business, impetuous and a free-will animal, monkey has enjoyed himself all year. And now it’s that time again as the Fire Rooster is being celebrated! Chinese New Year 2017 has begun and will last until Feb 15, 2018.
Billions of people celebrate the Chinese New Year, and that has an impact on the fulfillment business. The New Year, with the Red Fire Rooster coming in, is recognized as a public holiday around the world. In China, school children get almost a month off, and universities even more. To measure the impact, we can compare 3.5 billion people traveling as part of the celebration to the 100 million that travel long distances during the Christmas holidays.
Exactly how does this global holiday affect the fulfillment business? First of all there is a tremendous amount of buying and selling as people wear new clothes, give gifts, clean their houses, and buy lots of decorations. Secondly, Chinese port operations are slowed, and this would include loading and barging schedules that would affect product availability. Many factories and businesses will shut down for at least a week, and this can be felt in a number of countries. And finally, traffic will be very congested, affecting freight moving to and from China.
When a celebration is this big, and this worldwide, an international product fulfillment company such as AMS Fulfillment will have taken take note of the dates and times, making sure that they are staffed and ready.
Readers might be wondering what the Fire Rooster brings. Well, we’ve seen the behavior of roosters, just as we’ve seen monkeys, so the following rooster traits might be expected. Rooster symbolizes confidence, as you might imagine, and it also symbolizes character traits such as pompousness, motivation, bluntness, honesty, loyalty, trustworthiness, and yes, the rooster has opinions. The Fire Rooster is expected to spend time perfecting his image, organizing and leading, bragging and seeking attention, and possibly being so blunt that he leaves hurt feelings in his wake.
With over 5,000 years of recorded history, China is one of the oldest cultures in the world. This Chinese New Year of the Fire Rooster is number 4,714. The dates change every year as the Chinese culture follows the lunar calendar. In 2017, the Chinese New Year lasts until February 11th, about 15 days in total.
As we pack boxes and ship gifts, AMS staff and management wish Happy Holidays to all who are celebrating this exciting and beautiful Global Festival.