Every Chinese New Year, my Mum would consult Fengshui charts and figure out the family’s fortunes for the year ahead. When buying new clothes, she’d encourage us to get clothes in our lucky zodiac colours for more ‘huat’.

This year, I decided to adult and take matters into my own hands by consulting Fengshui master, Adelina Pang.

To my surprise, Adelina tells me she doesn’t advocate wearing yearly ‘auspicious’ colours. “A person’s favourable elements or colours do not change yearly. They’re pre-determined by one’s favoured element according to their ba zi (八字)”.

Understanding how Fengshui works: ba zi and the five elements

For those who are unfamiliar with Fengshui, ba zi is a system of understanding a person’s character based on the study of the five elements: earth, water, wood, fire, and metal. It’s similar to western horoscopes, except it’s a lot more detailed.

At first, I was skeptical of the ba zi analysis, but as I further studied my chart, I became truly shooketh at how accurate it was.

The idea is you need to maintain an elemental balance, ‘feeding’ your favourable sign and suppressing any element which is in excess.

How elements suppress one another

Fire melts metal, metal cuts down wood, wood (e.g. tree roots) break the earth, earth prevents water from flooding, and water puts out fire.

How elements feed one another

Wood needs water to grow, fire needs wood to burn, earth needs fire to become fertile, metal is mined from the earth, and water draws from metal.

Determining your ba zi

To know what element you need to add to your life, you first need to calculate your ba zi. You’ll need to key the date and exact time you were born (take a look at your birth cert). Note: your ba zi should be kept private.

To analyse what your signs mean you can refer to this chart. But what you should pay attention to is 1) your life star, and 2) the “Day Master” column in your natal chart.

So for me, I was born under the Purple star and my element is fire. You can see what your life star means here.

In my case, my favourable element is Earth, so I should incorporate more Earth elements into my day to day life.

According to Adelina, using a real element to compensate the lack in your ba zi would be more effective. Having a natural stepping stone entry into my home would do much better than a brown lampshade or brown curtains to incorporate the earth element.

But let’s be real, it’s difficult to carry around a jar of soil or rock. And if you can’t carry around your element, the next best thing you can do is wear colours which are representative of your favourable element.

So now you’ve calculated your ba zi, here are the colours you can incorporate into this year’s CNY outfit, according to your favourable element.

1. Wood

If your favourable element is wood, wear green or brown coloured clothing with floral or leafy prints. Pick fabrics made from natural materials such as cotton, rayon, linen to give you an elemental boost.

Green

2. Fire

For those who need a little fire in your life, veer toward red, yellow, orange, or pink clothing. Wearing geometric or triangular patterns printed on silk or synthetic fabrics is advised.

Yellow

Orange and Red

Pink

3. Earth

For those whose favourable element is earth, select squared and checked patterns in soft yellow and earthy tones. Wearing stone jewelry or necklaces with ceramic accessories is a plus.

Sand and Light Brown

4. Metal

Jazz up your outfit with metallic accents in the form of rings. If wearing a full silver/gold/copper outfit seems a tad excessive, choose an outfit in white or grey with polka dots and semi-circles.

White

Grey

5. Water

Don outfits in black or blue with irregular, wavy shapes to best represent the element of water. Picking see-through or shimmery fabrics, or completing your outfit with reflective accessories can help create the illusion of water as well.

Black

Blue

Wearing Your Favourable Fengshui Element

Ultimately, Adelina feels you should wear whatever you feel good in. “I find it amusing whenever I do a Fengshui talk because the audience will think that whatever colour I’m wearing is a lucky colour.”

“While there are certain colours I believe can help better your Fengshui, the solution to inauspicious ba zi readings is to be mindful of your actions.”

The clothes in this article were kindly loaned by YoungHungryFree and AforArcade.

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