New Year

My best friend was a drug addict and i had to help her into rehab. She did not want to go to rehab so we told her we were taking her to disneyland. She was so excited that she drove right home and packed her bags. Every country has their own holiday system. Different countries have different holidays. There are also some common holidays that people celebrate around the world, such as Christmas and New Year.

Different countries have their own definition of the New Year. was said that long long time ago, there lived a horrible beast named” Nian” In the mountain. Every year, on the first day of the year, which Is the first new moon of the year, the beast would awaken and descend upon the village. The Vietnamese lunar New Year festival, Tet Nguyen Dan, Is the most significant holiday taking place within the first three days of the New Year. The nearer New Year comes the more excited and enthusiastic people are.

In general, preparation for Tet starts one week before New Year’s Day. The New Year’s cake New Year’s cake Is a pastry made of the flour of glutinous rice nd used primarily in the lunar New Year period. 1 . Introduction (300 words) The New Year cake Is a special Year goods In Spring Festival. Those Rice cake were made by glutinous rice. A Turbulent Year for Israel 1996 has been a very turbulent year for Israel. This Iles In the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin on November 4, 1995.

Chinese New Year China is the first one of the cradles of world civilization, 5000 years of history makes China more powerful. There are many China’s unique festivals, like Mid-Autumn Festival, Ching Ming Festival, Dragon Boat Festival, Winter Festival and Chinese New year. Especially Chinese New Year remains the most important social and economic holiday in China. The Chinese New Year is now popularly known as the Spring Festival because it starts from the Beginning of Spring. Its origin is too old to be traced.

Several explanations are hanging around. All agree, however, that the word “Nian”, which in modern Chinese solely means “year”, was originally the name of a monster beast that started to prey on people the night before the beginning of a new year. In Chinese New Year, we have many rules and customs. We will sweep the dust, pasting paper cuts and spring couplet, staying up late on New Year’s Eve, dress up in red, give red envelope, etc. “Dust” is homophonic with “Chen” in Chinese, which means old and past.

In this way, “sweeping the dust” before the Spring Festival means a thorough cleaning of houses to sweep away bad luck in the past year. This custom shows a good wish of putting away old things to welcome a new life. In a word, just before the Spring Festival comes, every household will give a thorough cleaning to bid farewell to the old year and usher in the new. Paper-cuts, usually with auspicious patterns, give a happy and prosperous atmosphere of the Festival and express the good wishes of Chinese people looking forward to a good life, in addition to pasting paper-cuts on windows. The Spring Couplet”, also called “couplet” and “a pair of antithetical phrases”, is a special form of literature in China. The Spring Couplet is composed of two antithetical sentences on both sides of the door and a horizontal scroll bearing an inscription, usually an auspicious phrase, above the gate. The tradition of staying up late to see New Year in originated from an interesting folk tale. In ancient China there lived a monster named Year, who was very ferocious. Year always went out from its burrow on New Year’s Eve to devour people.

Therefore, on every New Year’s Eve, every household would have supper together. In Chinese New Year, we will dress up in red and go to relatives’ Houses to visit. The red color means luck for Chinese people, so we like to have everything red. People who are married need to prepare some red envelopes that contains money, so when people come to their house, they will get it to the people who are not married or children. When it’s Chinese New Year, children and teenagers get so excited about it, because they can get a lot of money from the red envelopes.

Gabriela J. Bachman Professor Lathrop Writing 1 19 October, 2009 New Years at Home As I described in essay one, New Years for my family is a very important event and we celebrate it with a number of activities based in superstition. According to Wikipedia (1) superstition is defined as “a credulous belief, not based on reason. The word is commonly applied to beliefs and practices surrounding luck, prophecy and spiritual beings, particularly the irrational belief that future events can be influenced”.

Despite the fact that Catholicism is the main religion in my country, all Peruvians believe in superstition. New Years Eve is when people confirm these superstitions by performing a variety of strange rituals such as burning a “Muneco de Ano Nuevo”, wearing yellow wrist bands, eating grapes at midnight, and placing lentils in our pockets, all these in order to push some luck and prosperity into our life. In the following paragraphs I will be making a deeper analysis on the meaning of these rituals and explaining why these rituals are still being carried by Peruvian families.

One of the most famous rituals and the first I described in essay one is building and burning our first “Muneco de Ano Nuevo. ” A “Muneco de Ano Nuevo” is an effigy of an important public person that had caused a big commotion during the year. Since in the past decades, politics has been a topic that has caused deception and discontent to Peruvians; this is the reason why effigies are mostly created to represent politicians as showed in this passage from essay one: “we made an effigy of Alberto Fujimori, who was the president at that time, and who didn’t have a good reputation. Since my family is very interested in politics, this ritual is a joy for them. The part of the ritual they enjoy the most is the burning of the effigy. This doesn’t mean we want to see the real person in flames, but we see it as type of anger therapy, as means of getting rid of all the frustrations we have accumulated towards the politician during the past year, hoping he will change and consequently, he will help to bring prosperity to our country. Besides releasing our anger, building and urning the “Muneco” is also intended to bring the family together into a last activity of the ending year, and first activity of the starting year, hoping family unity will be maintained throughout the entire year. Everyone has an important role in this activity. Although my siblings and I were in charge of building the “Muneco de Ano Nuevo,”, my whole family contributed in different aspects, as this sentence from essay one clearly illustrates it: “we used mom’s tan pantyhose to build the face, dad’s old blue jeans and black suit jacket to build the body, and my grandfather’s white tennis shoes to make the feet. A very important role in this ritual is the role of the males, which is to protect their children by doing the most dangerous activities involved in this ritual, as this passage from essay one shows “my dad and uncles closed the street, sat the “Muneco” in the middle of the street, bath it on gasoline, and lighted it on flames”. A superstition that is more focused with our history is wearing a yellow wristband in New Years Eve. As I said in essay one “my mom gave to each of us a yellow wrist band which we wore the entire night”. In Peru, yellow is the dominating color of New Year because is associated with hope, happiness, and optimism.

Likewise, yellow is the color of the good things in life such as the sun and gold. But this superstition has a deeper meaning of just being the color that identifies a celebration; in fact it has a connection with the past. For our ancestors, the sun was our God, and the gold was the treasure used to venerate him, but when Spain colonized Peru, they stole our gold and forced natives to change their religion. This is the main reason why we celebrate New Year in Yellow, as a way to award homage to our roots and ancestors, hoping our country will never have to go through this pain again.

Lastly, two family oriented superstitions that were also mentioned in essay one are eating grapes at midnight and placing lentils in our pockets. Eating grapes right when the clock strikes midnight is a common superstition practiced in Peru and Latin America in general. “… Right after, my mom and aunts ran to the kitchen to get the grapes (…) they handed us a bowl with twelve grapes each, which we ate under the table”. This example, as strange as it seems, involve us getting under the table to eat twelve grapes in only twelve seconds.

Per each grape that we eat, which represents a month of the year, we get to ask a wish. If all the grapes are sweet, it means it will be a good year; in contrast, if for example the fourth grape was sour or not as sweet as the other ones, it means that April is not going to be a good month. As for the reason why we have to get under the table to eat the grapes, I think this just help us on concentrating when asking for the wishes and to avoid choking since all the grapes must be eaten very fast. Another family oriented superstition I mentioned is to carry lentils in our pockets during New Years Eve.

In my country, people consider lentils as being a very nutritious food because it contains a big amount of proteins, minerals, and vitamins. As I mentioned in essay one “my mom handed us a handful of lentils that we put in our pockets for the entire night. ” The illustration of the mother handing out lentils to her kids symbolizes the love and care the mother has towards their kids, providing nourishment and making sure they have the vitamins they need to grow strong. By practicing this superstition, we believe food will be available on our table throughout the whole year.

Also, lentils resemble coins, thus we believe that carrying lentils in our pockets during New Years Eve will bring money to our home. (Transition) Although I have immigrated to a new country and culture, I will maintain these beliefs in my family, and I will pass it onto my children as my grandparents did to my parents, and my parents did to me. And whether or not all these superstitions are true, they have become part of the Peruvian history and folklore, making our New Year’s celebration unique. Work Cited (1) Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. “Superstition. ” Web. 19 Oct. 2009. http://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Superstition