Chinese New Year

Since it is still January and since I get sucked into my own quests for knowledge like no other I am going to continue on my last blog touching on the history of New Year. This time, I got to thinking about the Chinese New Year. It is the one different New Year tradition that the majority of people I run into have at least heard of – whether it be to know what year they were born in or the festival surrounding it, this ancient tradition has captured the attention of many people the world over.

Since 1912, China as a country has celebrated the calendar New Year on December 31^st – January 1^st with the majority of the world. The Chinese New Year is not a set calendar date, and is still celebrated today as Spring Festival, starting on the first new moon of the New Year and ending 15 days later on the full moon.  The Chinese New Year is always on a different day, since it is based on a combination of the lunar and solar scheduled movements. This causes an extra month to be added in every few years – the equivalent to our leap years. There is a lot of history and tradition seeped into every aspect of the actual Chinese New Year ceremonies, from religious ceremonies to all of Heaven and Earth to recognizing the ancestors and all their sacrifice (family specific).

The ancestor portion of the ceremonies is usually the most significant, and is celebrated with a feast dedicated to them on the Chinese New Year’s Eve known as weilu (surrounding the stove). This weilu is a symbol of all the current and past generations of a family, and is meant to promote unity and honor within those generations for the upcoming year. Along with the deep traditions and religious implications of the Chinese New Year, there are many rituals and superstitions followed by the culture. For instance, the house should be completely and thoroughly cleaned before New Year’s Day, with all cleaning equipment and materials put away on New Year’s Eve. Then, after, you can sweep the floors beginning at the door, to the middle then to the corners, and not removed until the fifth day of the New Year, and never trampling on the piles. When taken out, it must go out the back door – this is due to an ancient belief that anything going out before this will be sweeping one of the family away, and to take anything out the front is to take away the good fortune or luck of the family.

 Also, at the stroke of midnight on New Year’s Eve, every door and window should be open to let the old year leave and the New come. No cursing, no unlucky words should pass your lips, nor should anything about dying, death or ghosts, the past year or crying….as whatever passes will come to you in abundance that year. Do not wash your hair or you wash away good luck, red is a good bright color that is seen to welcome good fortune. Knives or scissors are avoided as they can cut good fortune. There are many more traditions that many may not believe in any longer but that are still done out of the view that these traditions are what connect the past with the present and the future.

The coming Chinese New Year is to begin on January 31, 2014 and the upcoming year is the year of the horse…and that is something that is a blog in and of itself, the year of and etc…so, until next time.

Another New Year - here it is, 2014

Here we are, at the start of another year. It seems to come faster and faster every year. However, being me, I don’t just count down from ten, blow the noise maker, kiss my wife and party it up. Here is how my mind works = what the hell? Why am I blowing a noise maker? Who decided this is when the calendar flips? Why do I care? The kicker is, being me, I am NOT content to shrug and move on. So, though I doubt ANYONE but me has these questions and cares, read on my friends.

The current calendar we use is the Gregorian (AKA Western or Christian) calendar. This is the most used calendar today. It is an adaptation or refinement of the Julian calendar that dates back to 1582. Now, if you were to look at a Julian calendar you would most likely not immediately see a difference. They have the same 12 months, in the same order, and of the same lengths. What then you may ask is the difference? Well, okay, you may not ask that, but again, I did. The difference is that both calendars are actually an approximation of the calendar year, the Julian calendar was simply too long by tenths of time, and actual length of 365.25 days, and the Gregorian calendar is 365.2425 days – a length difference of .002%. Seriously.  The major reason this was done was typical of the day – to correct the celebration of Easter back closer to the spring equinox as was originally decided during the First Council of Nicaea in 325. Under the Julian calendar, Easter continued getting earlier and earlier. The Roman Catholic Church worked to correct this and the Gregorian calendar was born. *Fun Fact – the Julian calendar is currently approximately 13 days behind, since the Gregorian calendar started by skipping 10 actual calendar days to get the vernal equinox back to the March 21 date that worked best for the Church.*

So, here we are, in year 2014 under the Gregorian calendar, still celebrating something that has been going since 2000 B.C. in Mesopotamia. It was really cemented in 42 B.C. by the Romans, who raised Julius Caesar to a deity on January 1^st and honored his reinvented (Julian) calendar after his murder on the senate floor. Now we have a period of remembrance, looking back at the past year, and analyzing every major event. This all culminates in a night of jubilation and partying the world over on what has become to be known as New Years Eve (NYE). On actual January 1^st, there are many traditions, from family to religious to sporting events and parades.

I still am not sure that I get the big party and celebration.  Personally, my celebration comes on (surprise, surprise) Shark Week Eve, but this is where my lives philosophy comes in – to each their own. I want to party before the new Shark Week specials; others want to ring in the coming year. See, how I figure it…I know that Shark Week is going to be good. I will get to see old shows that I love, I will see new documentaries that are enlightening, maybe even a mockumentary I really see no need for but is entertaining. I do not know what the upcoming year will bring, so why ring it in anywhere but in my bed, with pjs ready to go to sleep. The past few years have brought huge changes, from good – marriage, career, volunteering opportunities – to bad – old jobs, fights with family and friends – to horrible – sick parents, debilitating sickness, lasting injuries. And that is how it is. I am not celebrating nor complaining about these things – life happens. Every minute of every day of every week of EVERY YEAR. It is tradition for so many people that I sometimes wonder if anyone else wonders why we litter Rockefeller Center with confetti every December 31^st or if it is so familiar to them, they don’t give it a second thought. For those who love to party it up as one year ends and another begins, I say good for you. It shows an optimism and faith I am not sure I have ever truly been able to muster up, and therefore a part of me is jealous of it. Rock on whether you are an optimist who waits for midnight with bated breath or one who does not care at all and just rolls over to spend it like you would any late night – these are the differences that make life interesting, right?

Back from Life Time Out

So, first off, I am trying to get back into this. I know I haven’t written in almost 6 months – life got crazy. I got a job that I love, but of which I skipped about 4 rungs from no responsibility to lots, and it took some adjustment. Also, with birthdays, holidays, anniversaries, injuries, etcetera, life got away from me and taking the time to write was so not in the cards. Life is starting to calm down however, and I am slowly getting back into some of the things that I let slide before.

I am reiterating – there is no theme to this blog. The one constant will be that my thoughts and interests are everywhere, and so this will be. There will be some constants – Star Wars, happy geek things, sports and the Annual Holy Shark Week Celebration. Other than that, I have no clue where my mind will take it in any kind of pattern.

I stand by what I said in my first blog. I am not a “professional writer” and you will often see a lack of polish and finish. Also, I am not unaware of the fact that I am a tad strange, and that some of my rants or as I like to think of them “flows of thoughts” are also strange. I also see the validity in my wife’s most common phrase, that she really wishes she could “YouTube this shit” so people could understand what she is subject to listening to on a daily and nightly basis. However dear (if you are actually bothering to read this one…;-p) as I often remind you – you put a ring on it, you have to listen to it.

So again, buckle up my family, friends and any poor reader who clicked on any of these links hoping it was actually knowledgeable. Welcome to a small taste of the brain and thoughts of Heather…I promise no one will get hurt, yet make no such assurances on confusion issues…