The Taipei 101 unleashed a flurry of fireworks at 12:00am, January 1st, 2010
Now I know most people have a New Year's Resolution that usually dies after 1 week, well I'm the kind of guy that usually has resolutions that last several years, or I dropped it after half a year and picked it up later again.(At least I don't drop it in the first week...)
Well, since this post is in the spirit of the New Year holiday, I'll tell you about it in different cultures.
So, the majority of the world celebrates new year on January 1st of every year, but many cultures doesn't. In fact, some cultures celebrate new year in February (Chinese New Year, March (Iranian New Year), April (Tamil New Year), and even September (Rosh Hashana, or Jewish New Year)!
Well, I personally didn't experience many New Year holidays, so I'm gonna write about the Chinese New Year and the Rosh Hashana! (I know something about Rosh Hashana even though I'm not Jewish because my Gr. 6 teacher was Jewish and gave us a little taste of it)
So, We had some bread made without yeast (I don't have a clue how that's made) served with honey and then we played (Ahem...gambled....ahem) with the dreidel (See picture below) and we bet on which side it's going to land on and whoever wins gets chocolate that has a loonie wrapping from the other players (See what I mean by gambling?). When I played it, I had a incredible strong start, but in the end, I lost everything (Guess that would teach me and everyone reading to not gamble, you could easily lose everything you have...).
The Dreidel with a symbol on each side
Well, onto the Chinese New Year! We traditionally celebrate everything on the Chinese New Year's Eve with fireworks, festivals, and lion dances! We also wear 唐装 (pronounced Tang Zhuang) which is the traditional Chinese clothing we wear on the Chinese New Year. (The funny experience for me with the Tang Zhuang is that last year, I went to school wearing it for it is the Chinese New Year and discovered that Oscar had the exact same outfit as mine! Except his is hilariously too short for him!)
The Lion Dance
Well, that's pretty the end of my blog. Thanks for reading! To reward your patience and keen interest, here is a little Chinese New Year based e-card for you! Enjoy!
I think you have mixed up several Jewish holidays. The unleavened bread (matzoh) is eaten during the festival of Passover. The dreidel game is played during Hanukkah. The honey dipped bread is actually eaten during the New Year (Rosh Hashannah) to symbolize the desire for a sweet year.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the corrections Mr.Gould! I just wrote what my Gr.6 Teacher told us to do last year! I sure didn't see that coming!
ReplyDeletenice andy, thats cool, whats next?????
ReplyDelete