🐎 Lunar New Year 2026

Date: 17 February 2026
From: Director’s Office
To: All Offices
Subject: Lunar New Year

Today we celebrate Lunar New Year — a time that has always carried meaning in my culture, not just as a date, but as a rhythm: clearing, returning, and beginning again with care. I’ve grown up with Lunar New Year as a moment of renewal, and it continues to shape how I think about starting well.

This year welcomes the Year of the Horse. Traditionally, the horse symbolises movement, endurance, and forward momentum — but not haste. A horse needs orientation before it runs: it senses the terrain, finds its footing, and chooses its direction before gathering speed.

That symbolism fits where many of us are right now.

As the Department continues in Orientation, we are not standing still. We are learning the landscape, settling into new rhythms, and allowing clarity to form before acceleration. The Year of the Horse reminds us that strength is not only about speed, but about moving well.

In the weeks ahead, as familiarity increases, we can also expect the mental weight of integration to rise — the quiet fullness that comes with holding new systems, responsibilities, and possibilities at once. This, too, is part of beginning well.

For those who celebrate Lunar New Year, this is a familiar kind of beginning — one that honours what has come before while opening space for what’s next. For others who are simply moving through a new phase, the spirit is the same: start grounded, move deliberately, and trust that momentum will build.

The Department celebrates this new year with wishes for health, steadiness, and direction — and for beginnings that unfold with confidence rather than rush.

Happy Lunar New Year.

The Director
Department of Self Love
“We orient before we run.”