Rare pig baby

You never know what (or who) you're going to stumble across in the Times wedding pages. This Sunday, I learned this, for example.

Amanda Morley Boyd and Duncan An-Shea Yin were married last evening in Brooklyn. The Rev. Ron Sala, a Unitarian Universalist minister, officiated at the Palm House of the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. ...

The bride is a descendant of William Bradford, a governor of the Plymouth Colony. ...

“All my life I wondered what kind of person chooses to get married when it’s freezing outside,” Mr. Yin said. “Now I know the answer: a man who proposes to his girlfriend too late to reserve a reception venue the following summer.”

Then they stumbled on an auspicious fact: Jan. 27 falls in the Chinese lunar leap year of 4703, which continues until Feb. 17. The current Year of the Dog is considered particularly conducive to weddings because it contains two lunar springs, a phenomenon that foretells a happy marriage and that has occurred only 11 times since 221 B.C.

“When I found out that Duncan and I were going to be married in the luckiest year possible, I thought, ‘This is so perfect, it’s so Duncan,’ ” Ms. Boyd said. “He is just the sort of person on whom fortune seems to smile, and I feel fortunate to be along for the ride.”

Looks like Ms. Boyd is not the only one upon whom fortune will smile; In China, All Signs Point to Wedded Bliss, proclaims the Wall Street Journal (via Creaders.net; with the subtitle Zodiac and Lunar Calendar Smile on Happy Couples;'We Can Have a Pig Baby'):

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.

Of course, the obvious question is when's the next double lunar spring year?

Uncredited photo of Yin and Boyd from the Times.