2024: The Year of The Dragon - A Belated Happy New Year

I got so wrapped up in my series of spacemen (particularly the Lido toys) that celebrating the Year of The Dragon and my collection was simply forgotten! Yeah, I be like that 😉

I put this graphic together 12 years ago! to celebrate the 2012 Year of The Dragon.

The dragon pictured here was my very first, a ceramic piece made by my mother back in the '60s (I'm guessing around 1964-65 maybe) and is re-posted here in celebration of her work.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Dragon
"Dragon" in traditional (top) and simplified (bottom) Chinese characters
Traditional Chinese	龍
Simplified Chinese	龙
Transcriptions

Zodiac dragon

The dragon (simplified Chinese: 龙; traditional Chinese: 龍; pinyin: lóng; Jyutping: lung4; Cantonese Yale: lùhng) is the fifth of the 12-year cycle of animals that appear in the Chinese zodiac related to the Chinese calendar. The Year of the Dragon is associated with the Earthly Branch symbol 辰 (pinyin: chén).

It has been proposed that the Earthly Branch character may have been associated with scorpions; it may have symbolized the star Antares.^[1] In the Buddhist calendar used in Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, and Sri Lanka, the dragon is replaced by the nāga.^[2] In the Gurung zodiac, the dragon is replaced by the eagle.^[3] In the Old Turkic calendar it is replaced by a fish or crocodile. Early Persian translations of the medieval period change the dragon to a sea serpent, although in current times^[when?] it is generally referred to as whale.^[4][5]

During China's Cultural Revolution, there was an attempt to replace the dragon with the giant panda; however, the movement was short lived.^[6][7]

Years and the five elements[edit]

People born within these date ranges can be said to have been born in the Year of the Dragon, while bearing the following elemental sign:

Start date	End date	Heavenly branch
23 January 1928	9 February 1929	Earth dragon
8 February 1940	26 January 1941	Metal dragon
27 January 1952	13 February 1953	Water dragon
13 February 1964	1 February 1965	Wood dragon
31 January 1976	17 February 1977	Fire dragon
17 February 1988	5 February 1989	Earth dragon
5 February 2000	23 January 2001	Metal dragon
23 January 2012	9 February 2013	Water dragon
10 February 2024	28 January 2025	Wood dragon
28 January 2036	14 February 2037	Fire dragon
14 February 2048	1 February 2049	Earth dragon
2 February 2060	20 January 2061	Metal dragon
19 February 2072	6 February 2073	Water dragon
6 February 2084	25 January 2085	Wood dragon
25 January 2096	11 February 2097	Fire dragon

Soooo, apparently the start of this year's 'Year of The Dragon' was back on 10 February with this year's branch being the Wood dragon. (hmmmm, I'll have to see if there's a 'Wood' dragon in my collection.)

But anywho, something in the back of my head this year told me to re-engage my dragon round-up and I did post the Harry Potter Gringotts Bank with its Ukranian Ironbelly dragon back in December 2023 (yeah I know, that's too early but it re-kindled dragon collecting for me). Then in April I posted the Harry Potter Hungarian Horntail dragon. Intertwining their way through the Harry Potter collecting was also the acquisition of other sculpts and toys and knick-knacks. But today I'm going to re-post photos I took so long ago of the dragon my mother made for me (actually she made two - one was just the head and then there's this one. Unfortunately that other piece is buried deep out in The Cave and is a bear to uncover). Enjoy! Opa Fritz

My mother's dragon had a repaired tail which is shown here. Back in 2012, I only took a limited amount of photos. As this too is buried out in The Cave, it may be a while before a new series of photos is taken. 

It measures 11" 27.94cm) L x 7" (17.78cm) H

Year of The Dragon - Happy New Year!

Dragons - Myth or Reality? Personally I can't say, but one thing is for certain, for generations they have  brought fear, and awe to many, inspired story after story and our civilization is richer for the stories they've inspired. They are legend! As today marks the beginning of The Year of The Dragon I thought I would pull out one of the dragon's from my collection (yes, I collect dragons TOO!), and an Asian style dragon at that. As you know the Asian style dragon differs from its European counterpoint in that it doesn't have wings and resembles a long serpent. However, this is a dragon with a past, my past. When I was just a wee lad, before I collected anything, before I really appreciated the cool toys I now blog about, my mother made this for me. During the late 50's she began to take up ceramics and made many items our family would come to cherish long after her death. She made me two Asian style dragons - this one, and a larger one which is actually just a dragon's head, both done in the same turquoise coloring with rhinestone eyes. These two date to about 1961 and are my earliest pieces. Today's featured dragon measures 7" (17.8cm) H x 11" (27.9cm)  L. As time - and energy - permits, I hope to feature a few more dragons from my collection this year, but for right now I'm running a little behind and must move on to other things - Enjoy!