2010年的Chinese New Year和Valentine's Day

Chinese New Year

The festivities mark the beginning of year 4706 (The Year of the Rat) since the mythical founding of the Chinese people. New Year Day is a day when all business accounts are settled and grudges forgotten. Traditional Chinese celebrate New Year Day as a birthday and count themselves one year older. The Chinese celebrate by eating noodles to signify a long life and pork dumplings called jiao zi, which means midnight or the end and the beginning of time. Children receive decorated red envelopes with good luck money inside. Celebrations include fireworks, a dragon dance and the beating of drums and cymbals, visits to temples, and prayers for blessings in the new year.

--目前，日益的国际化，很多传统的活动已经日益减少，大家一般都走亲访友，外出旅游等。

The Chinese Zodiac['zəudiæk]

The Chinese zodiac has twelve signs. Originally, these signs did not have animals associated with them but were signs used to record dates. They called them the 12 Earthy Branches and 10 Celestial Stems and their use went back to the Shang dynasty. Later, each of the 12 earthly branches came to be designated by an animal sign: rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, sheep, monkey rooster, dog and boar.

There is a folk story that describes how the animals were assigned to the cycle of years. Long time ago, the Lord Buddha ['budə] summoned all the animals together to assign each of them a year. When the cat heard the news, he let his friend, the Rat know about it and the two animals decided to go together the next day. However, the next day, the Rat did not wake up the cat who being a cat and loving to nap, slept through the morning. Therefore, the cat did not make it to the assembly on time and did not get a year. This is why there is no year of the cat and this is also why cats hate Rats.

The Rat, on the other hand, made it first there and received the first year. He did not achieve this without trickery either. He knew that a small animal like him would not be able to compete with the others, so he begged the ox to let him ride on its head. The ox consented and they went together.

Just when they were about to arrive, the rat jumped off the ox’s head and got through the finish line first. This is why the year of the Rat is the first year in the cycle and the year of the ox is the second.









Valentine's Day

The origins of this day are confused. There appear to have been two or three early Christian martyrs named Valentine. One was probably executed on February 14. One man named Valentine secretly married young sweethearts in opposition to the Roman Emperor Claudius ban on marriage (a policy designed to prevent young men of military age from forming family ties). Another legend mentions flowers grown by Valentine and given to children. When Valentine was imprisoned the children remembered him by throwing nosegays and notes into his prison window. These were the original Valentine greetings.

Some other information

1984年是循环的第一个，2010年是第27个。