Happy Chinese New Years!

KveTina

5-Year Member
Joined
Nov 27, 2009
Messages
254
Some of you may or may not know, but today is the first day of the Year of the Tiger! I wish everybody the best for the new lunar year! :biggrin:
 
Oh please!:unhappy: I dont know why people call it the Chinese New Year. Its the damn LUNAR New Year! No one country owns an international holiday like Christmas, so why does China get this undeserved favoritism?

/rant

Anyway, Happy Lunar New Year :|
 
i dont know if anyone else feels this way but Chockstock is kind of an A-hole! :shake:
 
Oh please!:unhappy: I dont know why people call it the Chinese New Year. Its the damn LUNAR New Year! No one country owns an international holiday like Christmas, so why does China get this undeserved favoritism?

/rant

Anyway, Happy Lunar New Year :|

Oh please!:unhappy: I dont know why people call it the French Fries. It's the damn UNIVERSAL fried potatoes! No one country owns an international food like rice, so why does France get this undeserved favoritism?

/rant

Anyway, enjoy your Universal Fried Potatoes :|
 
It is the lunar new year though, you are right. I don't believe referring to it as Chinese New Years gives China any kind of credit to the holiday. I'm sure plenty of people know it's the new year according to the lunar calendar. Getting into semantics does no good on here since I'm just wishing everyone a happy lunar new year and calling it what most people are used to hearing it as. :D

LOL @ www xD
 
>:|

Actually, french fries have in fact partial origins from France, so giving them credit for it is not overdue or totally incorrect.

The "Chinese" New Year is shared by many other Asian nations and it IS awarding them some sort of recognition. By calling it that, our perception is that only Chinese people celebrate the lunar new year, or even more erroneously, that the Chinese INVENTED the lunar new year/lunar calendar. Come on, I'm sure the Japanese wouldn't celebrate the "Chinese" New Year, would they?
 
First of all, I thought that they were called french fries, because "french" is a style of cooking, when you "french" something, that means you're frying it in oil. My source - some show on Food Network, most likely Good Eats with Alton Brown

Second, all my life, I have been referring to the holiday as Chinese New Years. I still do, so that's why I chose to call it Chinese New Years for this thread. Also, the Chinese had a big influence on the asian cultures in regards to celebration of the holiday*. So if you can argue that it's not completely incorrect to call them French fries because they did have partial origins in France, then I can use that logic and also argue that it's not completely incorrect to refer to the Lunar New Year as Chinese New Years.

*From what I can remember, the fireworks, the traditional foods such as the rice and bean patty cakes and dried sweetened coconut candy strips (yum), those good things we use to celebrate, originated in China.

Incidentally, I Wikipedia-ed this (I know some people do not trust Wikipedia as a credible source... but here it is anyway :D)

"Chinese New Year is celebrated in countries and territories with significant Han Chinese populations (Chinatowns), such as Mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau, Singapore, Taiwan, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Thailand. Chinese New Year is considered a major holiday for the Chinese and has had influence on the new year celebrations of its geographic neighbors, as well as cultures with whom the Chinese have had extensive interaction. These include Koreans (Seollal), Tibetans and Bhutanese (Losar), Mongolians (Tsagaan Sar), Vietnamese (Tết),and the Japanese before 1873 (Oshogatsu)."

I don't want to argue this with you, but like I said before. I don't believe calling it Chinese New Years is giving the Chinese any kind of special attention or credit. Plenty of people know that it is the lunar new year, and plenty people know that not JUST the Chinese celebrate it.

Now, at least, not any kind of "undeserved favoritism".
 
It was also the Vietnamese "Lunar" New Year yesterday as well, as mentioned before. I was given a nice amount of cash. :thumb:

I don't think any countries try to claim ownership or anything but keep in mind the cultures and customs are different. It wouldn't be right if it was Chinese/Malaysian/Filipeno/Singapore New Years. Every country has different ways of celebrating.

Kind of a weird comparison but... imagine combining Hanukkah and Christmas. It wouldn't make sense. I know that no one owns these holidays but I can't think of anything else.
 
I got some money too! But then I lost a good bit of that money at a New Year's festival.

I also don't think any countries claim the holiday as theirs, and especially not China even though a lot of people call it "Chinese New Years". And you're right about the cultures and customs being different, earlier I was just speaking from my own experiences. Since I am Vietnamese, a lot of things we do to celebrate is similar to how the what the Chinese do to celebrate the new year. My Viet school teacher told me that those traditions originated in China and then they extended their influence to other Asian countries, so I assumed that the holiday may be commonly referred to as Chinese New Years since those traditions originated in China. But then again, I don't know how other countries celebrate it.

Now I'm wondering, if I attended an SA, would I be able to celebrate this holiday? I'm not asking for a day off of school, but are there Buddhist temples where I could go to and pray? I'm sure the AFA has a Buddhist temple, but I am not sure about the others, the Navy and Coast Guard in particular.
 
Plenty of people know that it is the lunar new year, and plenty people know that not JUST the Chinese celebrate it.

Now, at least, not any kind of "undeserved favoritism".

Not plenty enough Americans! As an American, I want us to be the more educated about foreign relations and other issues and rather really simple things like the cultures of other countries. I think thats important for us as a nation to recognize and understand it ACCURATELY. Trust me - even if calling it "Chinese" New Year doesn't give them credit for it, it basically implies that its the new year celebrated only in China. Our New Year, the one celebrated on January 1st, is certainly celebrated differently in different parts of Europe and America, even though the whole western hemisphere basically uses the same calender and its on the same date. But its not called the "American" New Year, or the "Italian" New Year. I think the same principle should apply to the Lunar New Year as well.
 
A little late but GUNG HEY FAT CHOY. And a little red envelope for everyone.:thumb: If you have never been to a traditional Chinese New Years celebration you are really missing some great food.
 
Now I'm wondering, if I attended an SA, would I be able to celebrate this holiday? I'm not asking for a day off of school, but are there Buddhist temples where I could go to and pray? I'm sure the AFA has a Buddhist temple, but I am not sure about the others, the Navy and Coast Guard in particular.

I'm pretty sure you'll have to celebrate quickly and privately, as there is no time off for Chinese New Year. My half-Chinese son is swamped these days, so it was honestly the last thing on his mind. His red envelope is waiting for him at home, 3 more weeks till Spring Break :)

gōng xǐ fā cái
 
Or "Kung Hei Fat Choi". Don't have the right characters to do it correctly.

HAPPY NEW YEAR anyway you want to pronounce it.:biggrin:
Daughter will be doing Beijing fall semester and I am sure she will correct all my pronunciation. I always keep my birthday Buddah near me at all times and I know I have a good Kami watching over me.

Year 4708 has to be a record.
 
Last edited:
Back
Top