Why Draco Malfoy Is Suddenly A Symbol Of Good Luck For The Lunar New Year
Fred Duval | Shutterstock While there are many rituals and good luck charms people can use to celebrate Lunar New Year, apparently, one of those good luck charms is Draco Malfoy from "Harry Potter." Malfoy has apparently been named a good luck symbol for the Year of the Fire Horse on Chinese social media.
The Chinese Lunar New Year is all about fresh starts and shedding that bad energy from the previous year. We still have less than three weeks until the Year of the Fire Horse begins, which is said to bring intense change and progress made on the goals and aspirations that we might've set during this Year of the Snake.
Why Draco Malfoy is suddenly a symbol of good luck for the Lunar New Year.
According to Chinese social media users, people are using photos of Draco Malfoy as New Year couplets to celebrate the Year of the Fire Horse. Normally, people put up couplets, pairs of vertical red paper banners featuring poetic phrases in black or gold ink, on their doors during the Spring Festival.
But this year, the symbol of good fortune for the Lunar New Year lies in Malfoy's name, which is translated as "Ma Er Fu" in Mandarin. The first word, "Ma," means “horse," while the third refers to good fortune. Because of that, Draco Malfoy's character has become a symbol of luck and a mascot for the Year of the Fire Horse.
People are also hanging Draco Malfoy's photo upside down in their homes.
In Chinese culture, "upside down" is translated as "Dào Le," meaning "has arrived." It's a way of saying that good fortune has arrived for the Year of the Horse. Videos on Chinese social media show people filling their homes with red posters bearing well-wishing phrases, known as fai chun or chunlian, during an annual festive ritual.
The wordplay of Draco Malfoy's name has truly sparked a wave of memes, fan art, and decorations. People have printed images of young Tom Felton smiling from ear to ear on Lunar New Year posters. Chinese people have also created photos of Felton riding cartoon horses, which have been put on refrigerators, in office spaces, and even around shopping malls.
Draco Malfoy, becoming the face of Lunar New Year, even caught the attention of Felton. The 38-year-old actor, who has reprised his role as Malfoy in the Broadway production 'Harry Potter and the Cursed Child,' reposted on his Instagram story a photo of his face beaming from a red banner in a Chinese shopping mall.
"Magical awakening that attracts abundant wealth," said the Mandarin characters on the banner. This new ritual people are doing to celebrate the Year of the Fire Horse is adding to the excitement for the Lunar New Year later this month. While there are many traditional symbols of luck associated with this time of year, the unexpected Draco Malfoy moment adds more of a modern twist that people can't seem to get enough of.
Nia Tipton is a staff writer with a bachelor’s degree in creative writing and journalism who covers news and lifestyle topics that focus on psychology, relationships, and the human experience.
