The meaning of Chinese New Year

Chinese New Year (simplified Chinese: 农历新年; traditional Chinese: 農曆新年; pinyin: Nónglì xīnnián; literally: "Agrarian Calendar New Year") or Spring Festival (simplified Chinese: 春节; traditional Chinese: 春節; pinyin: Chūnjié) is the most important of the traditional Chinese holidays. It is sometimes called the Lunar New Year, especially by people outside China. It is an important holiday in East Asia. The festival traditionally begins on the first day of the first lunar month (Chinese: 正月; pinyin: zhēng yuè) in the Chinese calendar and ends on the 15th; this day is called Lantern Festival (simplified Chinese: 元宵节; traditional Chinese: 元宵節; pinyin: yuánxiāojié).

Chinese New Year's Eve is known as Chúxī (除夕). Chu literally means "pass" and xi means "Eve".

Chinese New Year starts with the New Moon on the first day of the new year and ends on the full moon 15 days later. The 15th day of the new year is called the Lantern Festival, which is celebrated at night with lantern displays and children carrying lanterns in a parade.

The Chinese calendar is based on a combination of lunar and solar movements. The lunar cycle is about 29.5 days. In order to "catch up" with the solar calendar the Chinese insert an extra month once every few years (seven years out of a 19-year-cycle). This is the same as adding an extra day on leap year. This is why, according to the solar calendar, the Chinese New Year falls on a different date each year.

New Year's Eve and New Year's Day are celebrated as a family affair, a time of reunion and thanksgiving. The celebration was traditionally highlighted with a religious ceremony given in honor of Heaven and Earth, the gods of the household and the family ancestors.

The sacrifice to the ancestors, the most vital of all the rituals, united the living members with those who had passed away. Departed relatives are remembered with great respect because they were responsible for laying the foundations for the fortune and glory of the family.

The presence of the ancestors is acknowledged on New Year's Eve with a dinner arranged for them at the family banquet table. The spirits of the ancestors, together with the living, celebrate the onset of the New Year as one great community. The communal feast called "surrounding the stove" or weilu. It symbolizes family unity and honors the past and present generations.

Composition Guidelines

PLANNING YOUR STORY

Step 1: YOU MUST PLAN!
Before we discuss about how to plan a composition, I always ask my students whether they plan their compositions at all in the first place. Although some students claim they plan their composition, after careful enquiry, you will realise very, very few students indeed plan their compositions. It is always an uphill task to persuade any student of the necessity of planning their composition since most of them have survived to-date without having to do so. "If it isn't broken, don't fix it" seems to be the over-riding principle of inertia for young students.

Well here's a new rule, "If you fail to plan, you plan to fail".You MUST plan.

Don't just use the first idea that pops into your head. That is quite like playing Russian Roulette. You're relying on pure luck whether that idea is a good or bad idea. We all know that it's a bad idea to answer any (test) paper relying on plain luck, but for some strange mysterious reason, when it comes to composition, students abandon all logic to trust in their Stars/Ancestors/Relevant Deity to provide them with inspiration. While we're at it, let's also walk across the PIE blindfolded. Remember: you MUST plan!

More often than not, the first idea that pops into your head is the most obvious idea. It also means it will be first idea that pops into every other student's head. Your composition will drown in a flood of hundreds of other almost exactly identical stories. Unless you relish the idea of writing the exact same thing as everybody else, consider other alternatives. Take for example a typical composition title: A Day At The Beach. I have marked at least hundreds of picnic compositions on that theme. By the time I have finished marking the hundredth picnic account, I'm just about ready to take commit ritual sepuku except thankfully, I'm not Japanese.

Some brighter sparks (that means you of course) add in a bit of originality and excitement by including a drowning, accident, criminals, daring rescue and so on. Unfortunately, the very same idea has occurred to all their classmates. Come on, Beach... Drowning... not exactly original material. Unfortunately, if you don't plan, that's the kind of story you will come up with. My point is, YOU MUST PLAN! Or have I said that already?

How To Plan
Now that I have made put my point across, we ask: how to plan? Strict planning formulas are almost as bad as no plan. I've seen some quite horrifying tables and guidelines in student guides that has the words "Introduction", "Body" and "Conclusion" somewhere in there. Well, actually I'm making that up. But my point is - there is no instant formula. No great author ever came up with an original work by filling in some table. Well, maybe except Adam Smith and we all know what happened to him.

Just guide yourself with the following basic questions: Who, When, Where, Why, How and What. This is not meant to be a magic formula. The reason why I suggest these is because they are the most basic questions I could think of. If you can think of anything more basic, please e-mail me your suggestion. The order in which you answer them is also not important except What is always answered last, and I will explain why later.

Who
Who are the characters in your story? You? A 3rd party? Your friends / classmates / family / relatives? John? Who?

Pick your characters to improve your story. If the topic is A Day At The Beach, pick characters that will add to the story. Naturally, throwing in a sky-diving champion would be better than throwing in a lawyer. But what would be better than a sky-diving champion? A sky-diving grandmother? A sky-diving iguana? Don't take my word for it, try it out for yourself.

Where
Where did it happen? In School/at the graveyard/in the toilet?Of course sometimes you can be limited as in the example A Day At the Beach would have to happen at the beach. But a good student always asks, which part of the beach? A better student asks where is this beach? It can range anywhere from East Coast Park to Madagascar.

When
What day did the story occur? Yesterday? Your birthday? Last Christmas? September 1939? When?Don't forget the time! What time did it happen? It is shocking how many students forget about the time. Obviously a story set in the afternoon would be very different from one set in the middle of the night.When did it happen? In the morning? At night? While you were in the toilet? Eating cornflakes? Reading the newspapers? Doing all three?Have fun with the facts. There is no limit.

Why
Why? What do you mean why? If the topic is "A Heartbreaking Christmas", why was it heartbreaking? If it was "A Joyful Reunion", obviously it is not necessary to ask why it was joyful. All reunions are joyful except maybe old school reunions but that's another story. Why were they separated? Why did they take so long to reunite?For some topics it may be harder to explain why. For example, "A Day At The Beach". Why were you there? Was it for a picnic (no!) or for some other reason (yes)?

How
How did it happen? This may overlap with "What" which I will explain later. Sometimes people have more fun reading how something happens than the fact that it did happen. Especially if the method is especially clever or amusing. Sometimes, you don't need to tell how something happened (how you went to the beach), sometimes you do (how the prisoner escaped from jail). Use your common sense.

What
Lastly, What happened? This is a blow by blow account of the whole story. In other words, it is a concise summary of everything you intend to put into your story. Once you have put together WHO, WHEN, WHERE, WHY and HOW, you are now ready to say answer WHAT happened. It is like putting meat on the skeleton of an animal except without all the blood and stuff. Actually it isn't like it at all, but I could not think of a better analogy.

A NEGATIVE EXAMPLE
Back to the example of A Day At The Beach. One teacher I know told me about a student who wrote about a picnic he had with his friends. It began optimistically with them finding a nice shady spot to set up. It went downhill from there as he began to narrate they had sandwiches (nice delicious sandwiches), fried beehoon (nice delicious fried beehoon), fishballs (nice delicious fishballs) and packet drinks (nice delic... you get the idea). By the time the teacher got to packet drinks, it was so boring it could physically drive breath out of your body. If you are that student, I apologise for using you as a negative example.

Be Realistic
Use your common sense. Don't go overboard. A story that is wholly absurd is as bad as a story which is boring. Don't insult your reader's intelligence by expecting them to believe ridiculously exaggerated heroism. Really don't. Really.If you set up your story right, you won't have to resort to extreme solutions. Nobody is going to believe you beat a man with a machine gun by dodging through a rain of bullets and karate chopping him on the neck.

Last Words
Have fun. Planning makes it more fun, not less. Because it depends only on your imagination, every student is as good as another. It is the only place where the competition is completely fair. Go for it.

Funny "Sick Poem" by Shel Silverstein

"I cannot go to school today,"
Said little Peggy Ann McKay.

"I have the measles and the mumps,
A gash, a rash, and purple bumps.
My mouth is wet, my throat is dry,
I'm going blind in my right eye.

My tonsils are as big as rocks,
I've counted sixteen chicken pox.
And there's one more - that's seventeen!
And don't you think my face looks green?

My leg is cut, my eyes are blue-
It might be instamatic flu.
I cough and sneeze and gasp and choke
I'm sure that my left leg is broke.

My hip hurts when I move my chin,
My belly button's caving in,
My back is wrenched, my ankle's sprained,
My 'pendix pains each time it rains.

My nose is cold, my toes are numb,
I have a sliver in my thumb.
My neck is stiff, my spine is weak.
I hardly whisper when I speak.

My tongue is filling up my mouth,
I think my hair is falling out.
My elbow's bent - my spine ain't straight.
My temperature is one-o-eight.

My brain is shrunk, I cannot hear,
There is a hole inside my ear.
I have a hangnail, and my heart is-

...WHAT?

What's that?
What's that you say?
You say today is...Saturday?
G'bye, I'm going out to play!"

A Funny Video

Welcome Note

Dear Parents/Guardians/Students of P5.6,

I would like to inform you that I will be the form teacher of Primary 5.6 this year.

Besides taking charge of the class administrative matters, I will be teaching the core academic subjects; English, Mathematics and Science, as well as Social Studies.

As 5.6 form teacher, I am committed to bring out the best in all the students. I believe that home support is important in helping every pupil achieve their full potential. Thus, I look forward to working closely with parents/guardians in monitoring the student’s progress.

I will be employing different modes of communication to keep you updated of the happenings in the class and school. You may visit this class blog for any announcements. I will also be using the school central messaging system to reinforce announcements from time to time. Alternatively, I am contactable via the school phone number: 67831191, or through my email at chan_yew_meng_david@moe.edu.sg.

Thank you for your time and I look forward to this partnership with you.

Yours Sincerely,
Mr. David Chan