Rolling Oranges: Happy Year of the Fire Horse

 

Chinese New Year

February 17 marked the beginning of the Chinese New Year, also known as the Lunar New Year, for 2026. It is a momentous time in China and beyond, with Chinese diasporas reaching across the globe. In fact, one quarter of the world's population celebrates the Chinese New Year as a primary holiday, and the rest of us can enjoy it in ways large and small. Many neighborhood Asian markets have foods and decorations that you can purchase to bring the spirit of the Lunar New Year into your home.

The first fifteen days of the Chinese New Year are also called the Spring Festival, a time for great celebration and rituals, many of which involve oranges, mandarins such as tangerines, and other types of citrus. The Chinese word for orange, chengzi or 橙子, sounds very similar to the Chinese word for gold, jinzi or 金子. As such, oranges and other citrus fruits have become symbols of prosperity and good fortune in the New Year. Even if you don't have other Chinese New Year decorations or dishes, you can still enjoy some orange-centric traditions.

Rolling Oranges

Also known as "rolling in the gold," one way to bring prosperity, good fortune, and success into your home is to use a feng shui ritual of rolling nine oranges and tangerines through your front door threshold from the outside of your home. Feng shui is the Chinese art of using objects and belongings in the home in harmonious ways, as a means to optimize the qi or good vibrations in one's life. The front door is known as energy center or energy mouth of your living space, taking in the symbolism of the oranges as a way to secure and enrich your home for the year ahead. Nine is the number for good luck. By rolling nine oranges into the home versus out the door, the energy of abundance and good fortune are encouraged to "make themselves at home" in your life. 

Prosperity Bowl

In addition to rolling oranges into the home, another tradition of the Chinese New Year is to place a bowl of money--usually folded into bright red and gold envelopes--and citrus on a well-lit, prominent place in the home such as a dining table or living room credenza. Not only do the citrus fruits represent the gold of riches, but they are also meant to nourish the steady flow of prosperity for the entire year. Continue to eat the citrus and replace it with fresh fruits each week.

Year of the Fire Horse: Seeing Red

Each year of the Chinese New Year is represented by a different animal in a repeating twelve-year cycle that goes back some 3,500 years. These animals are: Rat, Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake. Horse, Goat, Monkey, Rooster, Dog, and Pig. Additionally, each animal is paired with the five elements: earth, water, fire, metal, and wood. Therefore, every sixty years, we see a specific pairing of an animal and an element repeat itself. This year is the Year of the Fire Horse. It is represented by the power and force of the color red. Red is already a traditional color for the Chinese New Year, as it is also a symbol of good luck. As such, this year it is especially meaningful to optimize it.  One way we can do this is by honing in on red-fleshed citrus fruits such as red grapefruits and cara cara red navel oranges.

The Year of the Fire Horse is considered a potent one, filled with excitement, uncertainty, and pivotal shifts. All the more reason to keep a steady diet of citrus fruits to keep you energized, nourished, and hydrated so you can enjoy the wild ride.

From all of us here at Florida Fruit Shippers: Happy Chinese New Year!

SOURCES:
https://asia.si.edu/whats-on/events/celebrations/lunar-new-year-celebration/
https://www.forbes.com/sites/jamiecartereurope/2025/12/30/heres-the-date-for-chinese-new-year-2026---and-what-animal-you-are/
https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/feng-shui/
https://www.homesandgardens.com/solved/rolling-oranges-ritual
https://medium.com/@mariacorreaflynn/symbolism-of-the-number-9-f42b48dd5b64
https://www.homesandgardens.com/solved/feng-shui-prosperity-bowl
https://www.homesandgardens.com/news/lunar-new-year-decorating-with-red
https://www.history.com/articles/red-envelopes-chinese-new-year
https://www.history.com/articles/chinese-zodiac-signs-animals-history

The Fruits of Peace

We all want peace. We want to feel whole, healthy, calm, and easeful, and we want that for others as well. However, the modern world challenges our ability to truly feel peaceful. 

The Squeeze of Stress

Stress. Even the word itself can evoke a nervous system shift, an ancient response designed to protect us from potential invaders to our well-being. The thing about stress is that it feeds on itself. Like a snowball, the body's responses to stressful influences can easily grow and compound, and it can feel like everything is going downhill. This downward spiral makes you feel squeezed from all sides, amps up our hypothalamus into overdrive, and causes hormones such as cortisol and adrenaline to flood throughout our body. For the short term, these hormones can be very helpful in escaping from real danger. But in the modern world, we are suspended in a mid-stress loop--a low-level but constant feeling of potential danger. This loop is generated largely because we are inundated with bad news from all of our media sources. We are forever bathed in varying levels of stress hormones. 

Medical research is clear: long-term stress causes a whole host of pathological effects, such as high cholesterol, cardiovascular disease, digestive issues, sleep disturbances, headaches, obesity, anxiety, and depression. Fortunately, in the same way that stress can compound, it can also be reversed. Practices such as mindfulness, compassion, walking, proper rest, and whole foods nutrition activate our parasympathetic nervous system and bring us back into balance. 

Walk for Peace

On October 25, 2025, 25 Theravada monks left their Dhammacetiya monastery in Fort Worth, Texas. They traversed 2,300 miles on foot and, 108 days after they departed from Fort Worth, they arrived in Washington, D.C. on February 10, 2026. They were a steady, stalwart line of orange snaking through multicolored cities and crowds, treelined suburbs, and snow-covered rural roads. Along the way, they met all kinds of adversity, from rabble-rousing spectators to illness to subzero temperatures and snowstorms. And yet, their mission and countenance of peace were unwavering.

Their message was simple: "Make today your peaceful day." They embodied this message in every mindful step, walking for miles each day until it was time to eat and rest, and then walking again. They practiced mindfulness as they walked, ate, and engaged with large numbers of people, inviting everyone to join them. At their once-daily mealtime, they used their bowls (shown hanging in the picture above) to receive offerings of nutritious foods. And every evening, their leader Bikkhu Pannakara gave a dharma talk about the importance of coming back to your true peaceful nature.

Orange: The Color of Peace

The robes worn by Theravada monks are a vibrant orange hue. There is a practical reason for this: in the very early days of Buddhism, turmeric and saffron were the most available sources of dyes. Historically, orange also represented the fire of the Buddha's teachings, as it was warm enough to burn away delusion and ignorance. It also represents brightness along a dark path and protection from factors that could dissuade monks from pursuing this path. Ultimately, the orange robes of the monks are powerful symbols of lovingkindness and peace.

Orange: The Fruit of Peace

The message of the Walk for Peace was clear: practice peace every day, and this wounded world will begin to heal. The daily grounded presence of the monks for over 108 days on social media and throughout ten states showed us how to do it. These ways of naturally showing peace--rather than just preaching it--are often referred to as the "fruits" of mindfulness practice. We can be told something over and over again, but when someone sees the effects of peace in action, it has the greatest impact.

Speaking of fruits, a very common snack that the monks were offered on their journey was the orange. Easy to eat, transportable, and packed with immune-  and mood-promoting qualities, the oranges that the monks enjoyed throughout their long autumn- and winter journey gave them on-the-go energy in an organic package that perfectly matched their vibrant orange robes.

Taking Peace Forward

 

Now that the Walk for Peace has ended, many have asked how to continue their own journey of peace and well-being, especially in the face of troubled times. Consider joining a mindfulness meditation group, connecting with the Walk for Peace Facebook page, and taking steps towards creating a more nurturing environment for yourself and your family. Carve out more time for self-care, including rest, moderate exercise, enough sleep, and whole foods. Eat an orange every day to keep your spirits up and your immune system strong, and let the orange color of the fruit remind you of the monks' robes. Give oranges and citrus fruits to others to keep up the practice of generosity and nurturing. Gifts of citrus fruits are also a wonderful way to open the doors of communication, allowing us to both hear and be heard when we need it most. 

May the fruits of peace, love, and kindness ripen for the whole world. May today be your peaceful day,

Sources:

https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/stress-management/in-depth/stress/art-20046037

https://dhammacetiya.com/walk-for-peace/

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/astrology/others/the-sacred-hue-why-monks-often-wear-orange/articleshow/112225324.cms