According to Chinese geomancy belief, the upcoming Chinese Year of the Rooster which starts on Feb 4 is a "blind year" and women who get married then will face marital problems. A blind year happens when the start of spring occurs before the start of the Chinese New Year. Geomancers rely on the Xia calendar, which is based on the Chinese equivalent of the solar calendar and was traditionally used by Chinese farmers to determine when a new year begins. It also determines the start of each "animal year" and the start of spring.

Chinese New Year: Year of the Rooster

Geomancer Adelina Pang said: "As the Rooster Year begins before Chinese New Year and they do not fall on the same day, this is known as a 'blind year'."

Pang, CEO and principal consultant of Adelina Pang Fengshui Consultancy in Singapore, says a blind year occurs about every three years. The last blind year was in 2002, during the Year of the Horse, and the next is in 2008, the Year of the Rat.

Ancient belief has it that a blind year is bad for marriage; women who wed during the year will become widows or have unhealthy children.

Another belief has it that the Years of the Rat (such as 1996 and 2008), Rabbit (1999, 2011), Rooster (1993, 2005) and Horse (2002, 2014) form the Si Da Tao Hua Nian or the "four years of romantic misadventures".

Couples who marry in these years are more likely to stray or separate.

The Rooster curse has driven couples across China to rush to get married, say news report. Marriage registrations in Singapore have soared as people scramble to get hitched in the last remaining days of the Monkey Year.

Fengshui expert Lynn Yap of 3P Fengshui Consultancy in Singapore says that the beliefs are taken more seriously by the Chinese in Hong Kong, China and Taiwan than in Singapore: "They tend to be more superstitious and believe in the Rooster curse and rush to marry in the Monkey Year."

Still, there are segments of the Chinese in Singapore who prefer to be safe than sorry. Bridal gown designer Ted Wu says he knows of 10 women who are rushing to get married before the Rooster year comes around. "Most brides will come seven months before their wedding," he says. These 10, however, went to him only from December.

Geomancer Tan Khoon Yong of WayOnNet Group says there is no scientific proof that a blind year is bad for marriages.

"There are couples who marry in blind years and are still happily married. Similarly, this Monkey Year is supposedly good for marriages, but there are unhappy couples too," he points out.

Geomancer Danny Cheong of Cheong Geomancy Consultants says it is better to get married in a blind year than during the seventh lunar month of any year, which is regarded as the Hungry Ghost Month and when lost souls are believed to wander the Earth. "Marrying in the seventh month is 200 times more unlucky," he says, according to the Asian News Network.

The superstitious believe that if you marry then, you could be marrying a "ghost wife" or "ghost husband".

So what makes a good year?

It is not all gloom for couples who are not able to make it for a Monkey year wedding. Tan says he has so far helped 300 couples select wedding dates in the Rooster Year. He says there are auspicious days within the Rooster Year and the dates depend on individual couples.

To get an auspicious date, the geomancer needs the ba zi or the "eight characters" of the couple--that is, their birth dates and times, as well as the Chinese horoscopes of both sets of parents.