Written by: all the group members (Part C)

Written by: all the group members (Part C)

CHINESE NEW YEAR

Chinese New Year starts with the New Moon on the first day of the new year and ends on the full moon 15 days later. The 15th day of the new year is called the Lantern Festival

The Chinese calendar is based on a combination of lunar and solar movements. The lunar cycle is about 29.5 days. In order to "catch up" with the solar calendar the Chinese insert an extra month once every few years. This is the same as adding an extra day on leap year. This is why, according to the solar calendar, the Chinese New Year falls on a different date each year.

New Year's Eve and New Year's Day are celebrated as a family affair, a time of reunion and thanksgiving. The celebration was traditionally highlighted with a religious ceremony given in honor of Heaven and Earth, the gods of the household and the family ancestors.

Chinese New Year is the most elaborate, colorful, and important. This was a time for the Chinese to congratulate each other and themselves on having passed through another year, a time to finish out the old, and to welcome in the new year. It was a time for family reunions, and for visiting friends and relatives, stressed the importance of family ties. Traditional chinese were superstitious, they do believe in gods too. before the new year, chinese must clean they huses, makeing sure that not even a little bit of grim left. besides, chinese also write spring couples in black ink on large vertical scrolls of red paper, and put on the walls or on the sides of the gate-ways. These couplets were expressions of good wishes for the family in the coming year.Children like chinese new year because they can accmulate their pocket money. Those married adult are to give children red pocket with money inside. Children can also get many new clothes.there is a short traditional story for chinese new year:
long ago, there was a monster called Nian. It was born to be very ferocious. On the first and the 15th of each lunar month, the monster would come down from the mountains to hunt people. So people were very much afraid of it and locked their doors early before sunset on the days of its coming.
There lived an old wise man in a village. He thought it was the panic in people that made the monster so bold and furious. Thus the old man asked people to organize together and to conquer the monster by means of beating drums and gongs, burning bamboo, and lighting fireworks in purpose of making large noises to threaten the hateful monster. When he told people about the idea, everybody agreed on it.
At a moonless and freezing cold night, the monster, Nian, appeared again. The moment it opened its mouth at people, burst out the frightening noises and fire made by people, and wherever the monster went, it was forced to back off by the terrible noises. The monster couldn't stop running until he fell down with exhaustion. Then people jumped up and killed the evil monster. Savage as the monster was, he lost in the end under the efforts from the cooperation of people.
Since then, people have kept the tradition by beating drums and gongs, and lighting fireworks at the coldest day in winter to drive the imagined monsters away and to celebrate the victory over it. Today, Nian refers to the New Year's day or the Spring Festival. People often say Guo Nian, which means 'live the festival.' Furthermore, Nian also means the year. For an example, the Chinese often greet each other by saying Xin Nian Hao, which means Happy New Year! Xin means new and Hao means good.

taken from: http://www.educ.uvic.ca/faculty/mroth/
438/CHINA/chinese_new_year.html


Mid Atumn Festival

The joyous Mid-Autumn Festival, the third and last festival for the living, was celebrated on the fifteenth day of the eighth moon, around the time of the autumn equinox. Many referred to it simply as the "Fifteenth of the Eighth Moon". In the Western calendar, the day of the festival usually occurred sometime between the second week of September and the second week ofOctober.

This day was also considered a harvest festival since fruits, vegetables and grain had been harvested by this time and food was abundant. With delinquent accounts settled prior to the festival , it was a time for relaxation and celebration. Food offerings were placed on an altar set up in the courtyard. Apples, pears, peaches, grapes, pomegranates , melons, oranges and pomelos might be seen. Special foods for the festival included moon cakes, cooked taro, edible snails from the taro patches or rice paddies cooked with sweet basil, and water caltrope, a type of water chestnut resembling black buffalo horns. Some people insisted that cooked taro be included because at the time of creation, taro was the first food discovered at night in the moonlight. Of all these foods, it could not be omitted from the Mid-Autumn Festival.

The round moon cakes, measuring about three inches in diameter and one and a half inches in thickness, resembled Western fruitcakes in taste and consistency. These cakes were made with melon seeds, lotus seeds, almonds, minced meats, bean paste, orange peels and lard. A golden yolk from a salted duck egg was placed at the center of each cake, and the golden brown crust was decorated with symbols of the festival. Traditionally, thirteen moon cakes were piled in a pyramid to symbolize the thirteen moons of a "complete year," that is, twelve moons plus one intercalary moon.

taken from: http://www.chinavoc.com/festivals/
Midautumn.htm

Our Opinions

Melvin's personal opinion: i think between the two festival i like chinese new year better as during chinese new year we children could get red packet from the adults that are married. I liked mid atumn festival too as shops would sell mooncakes which are so delicious with the paste inside,also children will gather at the park to play with lanterns as mid atumn festival is also known as"lantern festival" or "mooncake festival". i hope that this two festival could be celebrated together , so i could collect red packet as well as eat the delicious mooncakes. Yummy!


Xiao Lei's personal opinion: I think that Chinese New Year is a good time for bonding relationships, and puting all the unpleasant things behind. All my teamates had selected chinese new year as the integral festival their families had celebrated together had further prove me. When I was in china, all my relatives stay in different cities, Chinese New Year is the only time we get to see one another.
During the festival, adults will make special efforts to make delicious food, everyone of us can fill our stomach to satisfaction. our children will also get money and new clothes. our parents are band from scolding us, even though we have done some naghty things.
Chinese New Year is also belive in giving people a chance to turn over a new leaf. It is a consolation to those "bad eggs", they can have a fresh new beginning.
What I like the most is reading spring couplets, their caligraphy and the poem is so mavellously written that I will admire at the great work for a long time. Something I may even get a chance to practice. We can acutally learn alot good phrases from it. Not just so , the elderlys can teach the younger ones how to write spring couplet, this can contribute to a good relationship. Despite the fact that my grand father had passed away, I can vividly remember the scene when he was teaching me how to write spring couplets. Mid-autumn is an other important festival, which serve almost the same purpose of the Chinese New Year. i found that the story behind the mooncake festival is very interestine, a small mooncake may seen as small in our eyes but it had helped Chinese to et rid of the Mongolian.


Heng Yeow's personal opinion:I think that Chinese New Year is a good opportunity for me,my families,relatives and friends to come together to build up our relationship by eating reunion dinners.A new year also represents a new start,so we must forget the bad things that happened in the past and start afresh.Whatever mistakes you had made in the past,you should use this chance to change it for the better.

Mid-autumn festival,also known as ''Moon cake Festival'' is also similar as Chinese New Year,which represents unity.All my family members try to get together on this special day. Those who can not return home watch the bright moonlight and feel deep longing for their loved ones.The common traditional food that we ate during Mid-autumn festival is of course moon cake.For generations, moon cakes have been made with sweet fillings of nuts, mashed red beans, lotus-seed paste or Chinese dates, wrapped in a pastry. Sometimes a cooked egg yolk can be found in the middle of the rich tasting dessert. People compare moon cakes to the plum pudding and fruit cakes which are served in the English holiday seasons.Nowadays, there are hundreds varieties of moon cakes on sale a month before the arrival of Moon Festival.


Eleanor’s personal opinion: After reading the information, I now get to know deeper about the Chinese New Year and the Mid-Autumn Festival. Actually, both of the festivals are family affairs and they allow us to enhance good family relationship. I find that more and more people are not celebrating Mid-Autumn festival, maybe because there are no public holidays during that festival and people think that it is not as significant as Chinese New Year. But we also should make an effort to celebrate it because we are Chinese. They can realise that Mid-Autumn festival can be more entertaining and joyous than Chinese New Year.
Chinese New Year is about chasing bad luck and evil spirits away and for people to turn over a new leaf while Mid-Autumn festival is the day where there is abundance in food and for relaxation. Thus, we, together with our family, can sit under sky to be mesmerised by the glowing spherical moon. We can enjoy the mooncakes of different flavours and carrying lanterns during this special occasion.
I prefer Mid-Autumn festival than Chinese New Year actually. I think that carrying lanterns under the starry night sky is pleasurable because carrying the lighted lanterns is like lighting up the world when darkness strikes.

Yishing's personal opinion: To me, both festivals are the two festivals when we can enjoy ourselves and bond our family ties. During the Chinese New Year, I can collect red packets from my married relatives. From the above information, I learnt more about both the festivals especially the Mid-Autumn Festival. Whenever it is Mid-Autumn Festival, my family and I will always go to the park to light lanterns and eat mooncakes. Thus, as time goes by, I have the thought that Mid-Autumn Festival is a festival whereby we only eat mooncakes and light lanterns. Most commonly, people always do these two things during the festival and they also sit under the dark, blue sky to look at the glowing moon hanging in the sky. I prefer both the festivals as both festivals have their own merits and demerits, just like people.

Labels: Part C

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