Tonight out here it New Years eve and already the fireworks are lighting up the sky and the bangs are loud. It's only 20.20 hours so goodness knows what it will be like in about three hours time.!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! HAPPY CHINESE NEW YEAR TO ALL OF YOU
Happy New Year, KO. I knew it was close, but didn't realise it was tomorrow. Being nosey but what are you doing in China? You don't have to answer that if you don't want to...just say something mysterious-sounding or whatever.
Kung Hei Fat Choi - or a derivative... I work with several Chinese people who are taking time off...lazy sods Makes Chinatown here in London a "little bit busy".
I remember being told this story of how the animals got their order in the Chinese Zodiac: http://www.blss.portsmouth.sch.uk/hsc/cny/zodstory.shtml Well done, Ratty!
Kung Hai Fat Choi to you also but that's Hong Kong ( Cantonese) not Mandarin, not to worry every one is welcome, it's a very big night out here!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Hoorah. This is the excuse I need to have a Chinese Takeaway (bit of a treat at the moment, cash wise). Happy Ratty New Year! Come on then Keith, what is happy new year in Mandarin then? Although from what I know of Chinese, the intonation is as important as the pronounciation.
...just so long as the takeaway isn't made from bits of the animal being celebrated ... Might be better to wait till next year (Year of the Ox). Can't go wrong then. As for me - I'd probably have to wait until Year of the Dragon...
First I knew of it, was one of my children coming home with Chinese sweets to celebrate the New Year. What determines when the New Year is ... is it a movable feast like Easter and pancake day?
Apparently the Chinese calendar is lunisolar, based on the phases of the moon and on the sun http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunisolar_calendar So I guess the Chinese new year will be moveable, against our calendar (which is solar). But perhaps not as much as a purely Lunar calendar like the Islamic one?
