According to the Lunar Calendar, 2006 is the best time for marriage as this year has 2 springs which brings good fortune. The result has led to a mad frenzy in China to get married, resulting in shortages from wedding planners to flowers. Well I guess I’m quite lucky. Thanks to Jessica for sending me this article! (press MORE to read the article)

From Wall Street Journal:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB115067814013983792.html

Marry This Year:
In China, All Signs
Point to Wedded Bliss

*Zodiac and Lunar Calendar
Smile on Happy Couples;
‘We Can Have a Pig Baby’***

*By GORDON FAIRCLOUGH and LORETTA CHAO
****June 19, 2006; Page A**** 1*****

SHANGHAI — Sun Lidong and Liu Weijia had been dating for about 18
months
when they first heard that this year would be an especially auspicious
time
to get married. They decided to take the plunge.

“Getting married at the right time will bring you more happiness and
more
luck in the future,” says Ms. Liu, 24 years old, a customer-service
manager.
“It’s very important.”

Liu Weijia and Sun Lidong, seen here in one of their wedding photos,
believe
that a 2006 union bodes well for a successful marriage.

A rare quirk of the lunar calendar — and its alignment with the
12-year
cycle of the Chinese zodiac — has set off a wedding frenzy in China,
as
brides and grooms try to harness the forces of cosmic fortune to
strengthen
their marriages.

During the first three months of this lunar year, which began in late
January, 44,000 couples registered their unions with the city
authorities
here. That is twice the number who registered during the same period in
2005. Couples often line up outside the city’s marriage-registration
centers
on weekends and holidays by 5:30 a.m. so they can beat the rush when
the
doors open at 9.

The wedding mania is rippling across China and through the Chinese
diaspora.
Chris Chen, co-owner of wedding planner Dynasty Weddings in New York,
which
caters to the area’s Chinese community, says his business has doubled
from
last year. “Everyone’s just getting married like crazy,” Mr. Chen says.

Yan Guiying is intent on finding a husband for her 27-year-old
daughter. For
more than two months, she has turned up every Saturday at People’s Park
in
Shanghai for what is essentially a bustling market of parents trying to
find
mates for their children.

Clutching a hand-lettered sign with her daughter’s vital statistics —
she’s
five-feet-three-inches tall, weighs 105 pounds, has white skin and
earns
$560 a month as a fashion designer for an Italian company — Ms. Yan
joined
hundreds of other mothers and fathers trading their children’s pictures
and
statistics.

“I’m very anxious,” said Ms. Yan, a retired bank clerk. “Everyone wants
their kids to get married this year.”

Behind the boom: This lunar year, 4703 in the Chinese calendar, will
last a
longer-than-usual 385 days and contain two lunar springs. The advent of
spring, or* li chun*, is considered especially propitious for starting
a
family. So, having two springs in a single year is doubly lucky.

Yan Guiying (center, with glasses) is among the parents who gather at
People’s Park in downtown Shanghai hoping to find spouses for their
children. Ms. Yan’s sign touts the attributes of her daughter, a
27-year-old
fashion designer.

The extra-long year is a very uncommon event, tied to the complicated
system
used to keep lunar timekeeping roughly in sync with the solar calendar.
The
last one occurred in 1944, five years before the Communist Party took
control of the country. People seem to have decided that the rarity
will
magnify the good fortune of the double spring.

Adding to the pressure, the years on either side of 2006 are considered
exceptionally unlucky since they have no lunar spring. They are known
as
“widows’ years.” Many people believe women married in those years will
lose
their husbands at an early age. Marriage registrations in Shanghai were
down
nearly 20% last year.

Then there is the zodiac, which in Chinese culture holds that one’s
birth
year helps determine his personality and prospects. This is the year of
the
dog, which is widely viewed as good for marriage. Next year is the year
of
the pig, which is seen as a time when fortune smiles on newborn babies.

The upshot of all the signs is that China is facing a demographic jolt
as
marriages that would have been spread over three years are being
concentrated into one. At the same time, a significant spike in births
is
expected next year. Nielsen Media Research says it has already detected
a
surge in advertising for diapers and baby food on Chinese television
and in
magazines and newspapers.

“I’ve never seen anything like this,” says veteran wedding planner Xu
Hongliu, who has handled more than 100 weddings so far this year. “It’s
causing severe shortages” of everything from disc jockeys to
photographers.
Prices for roses and lilies have climbed as much as 30% in Shanghai’s
markets as demand has increased, she says.

Sociologists say that the wedding boom this year is part of a broader
resurgence in traditional beliefs suppressed under Communist rule. They
say
it is fueled by the uncertainties of China’s shift to a free market
economy.
“People feel like they are not in control,” says Xu Anqi, a sociologist
at
the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, and they “want to get help and
blessings from [supernatural] forces for a good life.”

LUCKY IN LOVE?

*No** li chun** (”widow” year, or not good for marriage): * 1956, 1959,
1962, 1964, 1967, 1970, 1972, 1975, 1978, 1981, 1983, 1986, 1989, 1991,
1994, 1997, 2000, 2002, 2005, 2008, 2010, 2013

*Two** li chun** (good for marriage): * 1995, 1957, 1960, 1963, 1966,
1968,
1971, 1974, 1976, 1979, 1982, 1984, 1987, 1990, 1993, 1995, 1998, 2001,
2004, 2006, 2009, 2012, 2014

*Dog years with** li chun**:* 1958, 1982, 1994, 2006

*Astrologers warn people not to take these dates too seriously, because
there are a number of other factors, including feng shui, zodiac
compatibility, and element compatibility, that are considered when
making
matches; they also say those married in widow years should not think
that
all marriages in those years are doomed. *

Ms. Liu and Mr. Sun were married last month in a Shanghai hotel before
hundreds of their friends and family members. In a short ceremony
conducted
by the DJ, the pair re-enacted their engagement — with Mr. Sun on one
knee
– before exchanging vows and rings. After Mr. Sun’s boss made a toast,
bubble machines were turned on as the DJ led the crowd in a rousing
rendition of “If you’re happy and you know it, clap your hands.”

“Of course, this is a good year. It’s a year of the dog and a double
spring,” said Mr. Sun. “It’s even better that we can have a pig baby”
–
since 2007 is a year of the pig. Explained Ms. Liu: “Pigs are fat, they
live
a comfortable life. My pig friends are all doing quite well.”

Seated to one side was Rei Wang, 25, and his new wife, Eva Chu, also
25, who
were married on May 1. “I wanted to hold off for a couple of years,”
confided Mr. Wang. But, he said, “Our parents ordered us to get married
this
year.”

The aunt of Ms. Liu, the bride, however, said she didn’t understand
what all
the fuss was about. Weng Xiuzheng, 64, spent her career in the People’s
Liberation Army and didn’t consider lucky dates when she got married in
1962.

“When the army decided it was OK, we moved to be together” in the
barracks
at a military hospital, she said. “People didn’t worry too much about
the
timing in the old days, and we’re all still doing OK.”

Many young Chinese aren’t taking any chances. Tang Yihuan and his
then-fiancée, Cheng Ting, were all set to get hitched last year. The
couple
bought an apartment and filled it with furniture. They picked out rings
and
hired a photographer. Then, they found out about “the widows’ year,”
and
preparations screeched to a halt.

The wedding was put on hold until this past March. In the meantime, the
couple lived with Ms. Cheng’s parents to “keep everything new,” says
Mr.
Tang. “If we got married last year, it would have been a disaster,” he
says.

Mr. Tang says the delay is already paying off. Shortly after his
wedding, he
says, he was offered a new job, with higher pay, at a public-relations
company that handles big multinational clients.

That’s the kind of story that inspires parents. “I want my son to get
married this year,” says Zhang Yongfang, who started coming to the
People’s
Park matchmaking gatherings in February.

But, she says, she’s worried. It’s already June and she hasn’t found
any
takers so far. She holds out photos of her 27-year-old son in a green
vinyl
portfolio. “We are running out of time,” says Ms. Zhang. “He can’t get
married next year. That would be horrible. He’ll have to wait until the
year
after that.”

*–Ellen Zhu contributed to this article.*