New Year's Day The world celebrate the first day of the Year on January the first when people sing the song Au_lun_Sye and say "Good bye” to another symbolic old year which had come to pass. In Singapore and Southeast Asia, far more important to the people especially the Chinese migrants and those who lived here, is the celebration of the Chinese or Lunar New Year. It started on the first day of the first Month in Chinese Lunar calendar, and end with a bigger Bang of crackers and lights on the Chap Gor Mei. Chap Gor Mei represents the fifteenth and final day of the Lunar New Year period as celebrated by Chinese migrant communities. The term is from the Hokkien dialect and literally means the fifteenth day of the first month. This is also observe as a fifteen days of fun, food, frolics or happiness among the population in Singapore regardless of race or religion .

The Dipper or the Plough or some other names of starry pattern in the visible on a clear night Sky

[edit] Chinese lantern festivals

(The CNY does fall on the 1st day of January..this year of the golden pig starts on 18 Feburary 2007)

Chinese_lantern

  Jack'olantern

There are many unknown festivals and special days among the Chinese, and perhaps on the festival of the lanterns which has its counterpart in Halloween celebrated on last day of August every year. Traditionally, the other date <August 15th> once served as a day for love and matchmaking especially in Taiwan, but on a smaller scale in Southeast asia. Our children sometimes would join in the fun with others in strolling the Bishan Parks near our home in Ang Mo Kio Town ; with their lighted lanterns. There was no treats or trick business here in Singapore! Centuries ago in ancient China young people were chaperoned in the streets in hopes of finding love. Matchmakers acted busily in hopes of pairing couples. Often, those with brightest lanterns were deemed good luck and hope. There is the Chinese Island in Penang another culture practice of throwing oranges into the sea and rivers , then wish for "Good Luck" for hopping to get a good life partner <wife!>. The begging question is how do we get our culture festivities and how did it first come about? This is an interesting topic to be elaborated herein. Also wanna visit our hungry ghost festival and see its origin ? goto [[1]]

[edit] The Answers is in the Stars!

Stargazing is not exactly my hobby but when I was a kid living in the 50s in old Singapura, our kampong was always pitch black every night after nine. I used to look at the sky (it's a free show) and wondered about the great sky with all the shinning little lights<stars>. I was not clever enough to figure out all the funny patterns of lights as imagined by those ancients and modern astronomers but I did remember some of them. The ancient astro-scientists also made important patterns in the sky and some clever people came up with stories about them. It would have been the Babylonians who were experts in this field, and the Chinese had some of their experts in the Emperors' Court.They invented the Lunar calendar to help the people do their ploughing and their plantings and their rest days. So how come the Chap Gor Mei ?

[edit] The Story of Cowherd and Weaver Girl

On the night sky of the late summer days the stars Altair and Vega are high in the night sky and the Chinese tell the following love story, of which there are many variations: A young cowherd named Niu Lang (牛郎, "the cowherd", the star Altair) happens across seven fairy sisters bathing in a lake. Encouraged by his mischievous companion the ox, he steals their clothes and waits to see what will happen next. The fairy sisters elect the youngest and most beautiful sister Zhi Nü (織女, "the weaver girl", the star Vega) to retrieve their clothing. She does so, but since Niu Lang sees her naked she must agree to his request for marriage. She proves to be a wonderful wife, and Niu Lang a good husband, and they are very happy together. But the Goddess of Heaven (in some versions Zhi Nü's mother) finds out that a mere mortal has married one of the fairy girls and is furious.. (In another version, the Goddess forced the weaver fairy back to her former duty of weaving colorful clouds in the sky because she could not do her job while married to the mortal.) Taking out her hairpin, the Goddess scratches a wide river in the sky to separate the two lovers forever (thus forming the Milky Way separating Altair and Vega). Zhi Nü must sit forever on one side of the river, sadly weaving on her loom, while Niu Lang watches her from afar and takes care of the two kids (his flanking stars Aquila -β and -γ). The occasion is marked by feasting and various festivities. In Taiwan and Hong Kong it is celebrated as the Lantern Festival. In Singapore it is the Chap Gor Mei However someone in Singapore decided it is best to seperate the two festivals, and consequently in Singapore <here> the unofficial holiday for the lantern festival is the fifteen of August, and Chap Gor Mei is the other unofficial holiday after the New Year. Doesn't matter if it is all according or not according to the Lunar calender, mind you! But do you know the meaning of what's Halleween and what hs it got to do with our version of the All Souls' day and our version here?

• • Note that another festival, Qi Xi is also sometimes referred to as "Chinese Valentine's Day".
  • Qi Xi (七夕; Pinyin: qī xì; "The Night of Sevens"), sometimes called Chinese Valentine's Day, falls on the seventh day of the seventh lunar month of the Chinese calendar and thus its name. It is traditional for young girls to demonstrate their domestic arts on this day (especially melon carving) and to make wishes for a good husband. It is also known by the following names:
• The Festival to Plead for Skills (乞巧節; qǐ qiǎo jié)
• The Seventh Sister's Birthday (七姐誕; qī jiě dàn)
• The Night of Skills (巧夕; qiǎo xì)

[edit] The festival of All Saints

The festival of All Saints, also sometimes known as "All Hallows," or "Hallowmas," is a feast celebrated in their honour. All Saints is also a Christian formula invoking all the faithful saints and martyrs, known or unknown. The Roman Catholic holiday (Festum omnium sanctorum) falls on November 1, followed by All Souls' Day on November 2, and is a festival of the first rank, with a vigil and an octave. The Eastern Orthodox Church's All Saints is the first Sunday after Pentecost and as such marks the close of the Easter season.

• Halloween although deprived probably from a Christian origin, is sometimes associated with the occult. Many European cultural traditions hold that Halloween is one of the "liminal" times of the year when the spirit world can make contact with the natural world and when magic is most potent (see, for example, Catalan mythology about witches). In Catalan popular culture, there are a large number of myths and legends about witches (Catalan "bruixes"). In the popular imagination, a witch is a woman who, by means of a pact with the Devil, has acquired supernatural power, which she uses for her own benefit and for evil purposes. During the Middle Ages, the power of the Church strengthened these beliefs among the people, using witchcraft as scapegoat for all calamities, to marginalize, imprison, and finally execute people, especially women, who would not submit to the established social order.

see November the first in the year 1755 in Wikipedia [[2]]

[edit] In the West Today

People loved to celebrate, and Halloween is just one of those fun days. People spent hour using the skills to cut out the most ingenious lantern made from pumpkins. However do they really understand all the significance that it all come from the fertile minds of people who look up yonder and dream up those pattern of stars into woven fairy tales and stories for your fun and enjoyment today? However it is not just fun, some professional people are all serious about it. But that 's another longer story..

• • • goto see professional astro-scientist and foretune tellers and Astrologist
    • Return to [[3]]

[edit] Happy Chinese Lunar New Year!

What is exactly the reason we are so happy about the CNY?

• In among most Chinese we don't realise that the CNY is an occasion in historical past and part of the ancient customs which has constantly refreshing meaning year afer year!
  

• Among us <Singaporean> all we think is the "Gong Xi Fa Chai" ! That is not exactly our reason for the new year. The main social re-union dinner or tronelienfun is not the reason either even though it is an important and social custom that we kept for years!

• The real meaning for CNY is that we all Chinese young and old, women men and everyone from time immemorial past has one more year added to our age..ie we are one year older and this is our birthday.

• Years ago we Chinese had no watch or clock or calender to show, nevertheless during the first day of every new year we know, because every first day of the year became the occasion for all Chinese to remember: Somehow it has been adapted as the personal birthdays of all Chinese! Our Chinese birthdays all happened and celebrated jointly once during this CNY!

Therefore the next time you can explain to your non-Chinese friend why this is your reason for happiness..

• Every year we have an animal to show the transition from one old year to the next! This year is the Year of the golden Pig.

I am so happy I am one more year old at 60 now.. and so ..happy birthday to all our Chinese readers too: Alien ^talk 03:44, 22 February 2007 (SGT)

Culture sense is cultivated sense, many may see it as common sense others disagreeing respectfully, may view it as nonsense

[edit] U see Me, I see U 2!

hehehehehe..like it as from Avatar LOR!

[edit] Confucius

another reason U r so confused,,so goto see it LOR!

it another great Chinese movie..hehehehe

[edit] this IS ANOTHER year , yEAR OF THE oX

GOTO SEE

[edit] Gook