Pony tales for the new year

In about a week, the Lunar Year of the Horse will canter in, ushering in 15 days of festivities, celebration and much needed rest for China's huge migrant workforce.

It is the year of the Wooden Horse, allocated according to the five elements of metal, wood, water, fire and earth in Chinese geomancy, and just past the halfway mark in the current 60-year zodiac cycle.

According to forecasts, this will be a compassionate animal sympathetic to world peace-expected to soothe away fiscal woes and human conflict, reduce the traumas of war and poverty, and protect the weak and suffering.