(中国农历年)

(中国农历年) The legend of Chinese New Year (中國農曆年) Chinese have their own calendar. It is called〝Lunar Calendar." People farmed, fished, predicated weather and did many other things according to the changes of the moon. The Lunar Calendar has twelve months and a long month is 30 days, a short month is 29 days. Therefore there is an extra month every four years. So Chinese New Year Eve will be on the 29thth or 30 of the Lunar Calendar, but won’t be on the same day in the Western calendar. The New Year festival in Chinese is called〝Guo-Nian〞(過年), 〝Gou〞means passed.〝Nian〞is the name of a furious monster. In legend, Nian will hunt people on Lunar New Year’s Eve, at night those who are caught will be eaten by Nian in his mysterious cave. People were very worried that family members or relatives would be hunted on that night. They wrote spring couplets on red papers and glued them on windows and doors, then prepared feasts and gathered every family member to sit around together. They ate plenty of food, sang loud songs, played cheerfully and fired off firecrackers…etc to keep themselves awake and to be brave enough to scare 〝Nian〞away. Until dawn, when the sun was rising and shining in the world, people started to celebrate the new life in a New Year. Thereafter “Gou-Nian” means that people have avoided the hunting of the furious monster and have new hope. 資料提供:台中市柏拉圖英語學校 Do you know why cats and rats are enemies? (中國農曆年) Here’s a story about the Chinese Horoscope. It goes like this. One day the Jade Emperor (玉皇大帝) said to all of the animals. “Tomorrow there will be a race, I will choose the twelve winner animals in the race and their name will be used for the name of a year, that precedence is by the winner’s sequence.” So all of the animals went home to prepare. The cat and rat were close friends, the cat said to the rat, “ If one of us wake up early we have to wake the other one, so we can go to the race together.” Of course, the rat agreed. The next day, the rat woke up early but he didn’t wake the cat up, he said to himself “I can’t let the cat beat me. Cats always run faster than rats. If we run at the same time, I won’t be the number one”. So he went off by himself. At the end of the race, the rat was champion and the cat hadn’t even woken up, certainly cat’s name didn’t appear in the line of winners. Thenceforth, cats and rats were enemies and cats always chase rats and kill them for revenge. 資料提供:台中市柏拉圖英語學校 The New Year Eve Supper (中國農曆年) There is a special name for the supper on Chinese New Year Eve. It’s called “ Wai-Lu”, which means people sit around a stove. Due to Chinese New Years Eve being in winter, people would put a stove under the dining table to warm them up. Many dishes are served during Chinese New Years Eve supper. Chinese will dedicate food on an altar for the ancestors and pray for good luck in the New Year before they eat them. Food plays an important part in Chinese New Years Eve supper. Traditional Chinese New Years Eve dinner has always been a celebration of new life, good fortune and togetherness. The food has to include meat, fish, vegetables, fruit, drinks and dessert. There are meanings that go with them. For example, the word “ fish “ in Chinese is pronounced the same as “surplus”. So a fish dish is an inevitable part of the Chinese New Year meal. In the enormous variety of vegetable dishes, is a kind of seaweed whose Chinese name is “hair vegetable” as it looks like hair, which has the same sound as the words meaning, “to strike it rich”. Furthermore, the word for orange is homophonous with that for “auspiciousness”. 資料提供:台中市柏拉圖英語學校 The History of Dragon Boat Festival (端午節) Chu Yuan was a very powerful person in the fifth Choo Dynasty. Everyone liked him. In his youth, he had a brilliant career as a statesman, a diplomat and court minister. Some ministers were very jealous of Chu Yuan’s success. They plotted against him, by telling the king he was dishonest. The ministers told the king that he was dishonest and the king banished Chu Yuan. Chu Yuan couldn’t bear his fate any longer, so he drowned himself in the Milow River. Every one was very sad and some people were heart broken, they quickly rowed their boats into the Milow River. They wanted to find his body, but they couldn’t find it. So they threw rice and meat into to river for the fish to eat, so Chu Yuan’s body wouldn’t be eaten. However the food would break apart and float away, so people used bamboo leaves to wrap the rice so that it wouldn't float down the river. Nowadays, it is the traditional food called “ Zong-Zi”, we eat it at Dragon Boat Festival. The Dragon Boat races take place Island-wide. Zongzi and The Dragon Boat Races The most popular food to eat during Dragon Boat Festival is Zongzi. Zongzi is a very special type of rice dumpling. It is usually made of sticky rice and wrapped in bamboo leaves. Zongzi can be sweat or salty. Sometimes they will have meat, mushroom and egg yolk inside. There are many kinds of leaves that can be used to wrap them. But they are usually wrapped from fresh bamboo leaves. The taste and smell of the fresh bamboo leaves is a special part of Zongzi. Nowadays, we can see it in many different shapes and size. Triangles and pyramids are the most popular shapes used today. They could also be shaped like pillows or cylinders. Dragon Boat festival is closely 資料提供:台中市柏拉圖英語學校 symbolized by Zongzi and the Dragon Boat races. The Dragon Boat Races (端午節) People have Dragon Boat Races every year. This tradition is more than 2400 years old. It comes from the time of Chu Yaun’s kingdom, and is still celebrated today. In the ancient times, Dragon Boat Races were undertaken to scare the evil spirits away. But now, we have Dragon Boat Races just for fun and to remember Chu Yaun. People often have Dragon Boat races during the Dragon Boat Festival. The crew of the boat are the drummers and the oarsmen. The drummer is the person who sits beneath the dragon’s head. He bangs the drum and shouts at the oarsmen to tell them what to do. The oarsmen are the group of people who row the boat. They sit side by side down the length of the boat when they row. The Dragon boat must be carved very carefully and decorated in bright colors. Red means heat, fire and summer. Red also means number five, because the Dragon Boat Festival is on the 5th day of the fifth month. The man who makes the dragon, believes that if he gives the dragon eyes, the dragon will fly away. So the boats don’t need eyes on the dragons. Paper money is put in the dragons’ mouths and it is also thrown into the river. People also believed that when they put plants at the door, the worms and the ghosts wouldn't get to them. The plants are called "ay taso" and "moxa." Sometimes people put some Chinese herbs into the bathtub before they take a bath. After they have finished bathing, their bodies would smell good. They believed the Chinese herbs would get rid of the "badness" in them. 資料提供:台中市柏拉圖英語學校 Chinese Ghost month 中元節 Chinese Ghost month started a long time ago, in the Buddhist and Taoist celebrations from ancient times. We are not exactly sure when it started. The Chinese believe that the dead become ghosts and roam between heaven and earth. Spirits without descendants to care for them are prayed for during Ghost Festival so that they may also enjoy the warmth of life among the living. This custom, an extension of the traditional Chinese ethic of universal love has been woven together with the didactic legend of Mu Lien saving his mother from Hades. At midnight on the last day of the 6th lunar month, the Gates of the Hades are opened. It is called Chinese Ghost month. Grand “keeling Ghost gates open ceremony” at Tsu Pu Tan Temple in Chung-Chen Park, This is the highlight of the festivity in the beginning of ghost month. In Taiwan, Ghost Festival is passed by slaughtering pigs and sheep, which together with a prodigious table of wine and meats is offered to one’s ancestors and ghosts from the underworld. Numerous Pudo Rite Festivities are also held at this time around the island. The biggest and 資料提供:台中市柏拉圖英語學校 most important Pudo Rite happens on the 15th day of the 7th Lunar month. People call it “Chunyuan Pudo”. The story of Mu-Lien 中元節 Mu-Lien was a Monk and he was very respectful. Mu Lien’s parents were good people, they prayed a lot, and helped people a lot, and they never ate meat. When Mu Lien became a monk, his father became very sick. His mother was worried, she went to ask Buddha for help. After many days, Mu-Lien’s father’s still didn’t get better. Then he died. Mu-Lien’s mother was sad and angry with Buddha for not hearing her prayers to save her husband, so she started to sin. She became very angry at Buddha and from that day on, she was lazy, selfish and terrible.She never helped people, never went to the temple to pray any more, and even worse, she killed animals and started to eat meat! So, when she died, she went to Hell! She fell into the 18th level of Hell and was in a very bad state. She was blind and couldn’t eat anything. She had to live amongst the fires of Hell. Mu-Lien heard how his mother was suffering in Hell and he was very sad. “I must save my mother,” he thought. So he prayed and began to help people every day. Somebody told him that the place, was called Hell, where he could find his mother, but it was very far away, and no one from the living people has been there. Mu Lien was determined to go to the far away place. “ Mu-Lien is a good boy. I think I will help him set his mother free ”said Budha in Heaven. 資料提供:台中市柏拉圖英語學校 資料提供:台中市柏拉圖英語學校