American workers celebrate, in September, on the first Monday of that month, the effort put in by past employees of various companies, in what is referred to there in the USA as Labour Day. Americans abandon work for the day in droves, though it has to be said that they are not in synch with other countries in staging this celebration when they do.

Many countries worldwide, including the UK, prefer to use May Day – May 1st –  as the widely recognised International Workers’ Day, an annual holiday celebrating the labour movement. Not that the day is given over purely to partying, The day’s significance making it popular with protesters, simply because the very first May Day was marked by a workers protest.

Strangely enough, although not at all well recognized in the USA, May Day actually has American origins, arising from the American fight to get the right to an eight-hour working day for everyone. It was in August 1866 that newly emerged National Labour Union – which was only to survive seven years – put a great deal of effort into persuading Congress that a law was needed to make an 8-hour day mandatory.

Though this failed, the message did reach the various states, and only a year later, the eight-hour day mandate passed into Illinois law, though employers simply refused to cooperate, resulting in a May 1st riot that year in Chicago, suppressed forcefully by police. Government employees breathed a sigh of relief in 1869, when President Ulysses S. Grant proclaimed the 8-hour day for civil servants.

Throughout the late 1800s, labour unions across the US made a key demand of legislation making the eight-hour working day standard, groups such as Knights of Labour, the Federation of Organized Trades as well as the various Labor Unions becoming very vocal.

this was especially true each year on May 1, on which day the organizing of strikes and demonstrations in support of the movement became the usual, though demands were continuously rebuffed. It was in1886 that labour unions called for a national strike, drawing more than 300,000 workers to gather in protest on May 1.

The Chicago strikes turned to violent conflict, over a few days between workers and strike-breakers in the Haymarket area, the aftermath of which saw local labour leaders rounded up, tried and executed, these so-called Haymarket massacres being  one of the reasons that Americans prefer to celebrate Labour Day in September.

At the turn of the 20th century, the average working week in the US, in manufacturing at least, was no less than 100 hours, so despite the labour movement getting more vociferous and aggressive with demands, little had really changed. It was actually 1916 before railway workers achieved the right to an 8-hour working day, and overtime payments, but it would be another 50 years before the rest of the American workforce was to enjoy the same privilege.

Image via Wikipedia

After escaping capture where he was held as a slave, St. Patrick turned to the missionary cause after claiming that God had spoken to him in a dream.  He realized that Christianity was the way forward for Ireland and taught Irish citizens about the Holy Trinity using only the clover leaf as a prop.  Thus the green clover (shamrock) became the internationally recognized symbol of Ireland.

The first ever St. Patricks’ Day Parade did not take place in Ireland, but in the United States, in 1762.  The immigrant population began to realize they had strength in numbers and the annual parade was intended not only to celebrate their nationality, but also as a response to the cruel treatments and lack of opportunities they were receiving.  Together, they began forming political groups, including the “green machine.”

St. Patricks’ birthplace is a mystery, but he was not a native to Ireland.  He was transported to Ireland to tend sheep in the Irish hills, where he spent seven years of his life.  March 17th is the anniversary of St. Patrick’s death in 461 A.D.  and several centuries passed before he had been  honored as the patron saint of the island.  There are accounts stating that he was born in Scotland, and reports arguing Wales is his birthplace, with the latter being more likely but still the evidence is inconclusive. 

Saint Paddy, as the nickname goes, did write an autobiography,“Confessio,” which documents most of his life from the age of 16, when he was taken from his family’s settlement.  He reports that he lived in a place called, Bannavem Taburniae, however,  no such a place exists today and there appears to be no records of this place name either.   Others have said that he was born in Dumbarton, Scotland.  Exasperated researchers have found no verification of Saint Patrick’s birthplace, and we can assume that the search will continue until an answer is found.

Arguably the modern festivities are less concerned with the social, political or religious elements, and more about getting together and having a good ol’ Irish knees-up!

Wherever you are in the world – enjoy the festivities, and don’t forget to put on your green!

Donnah Clark’s Triond Articles: 

http://www.triond.com/users/Donnah+Clark

Celebrating St. Patrick’s Day in the USA means eating corned beef and cabbage, as part of the celebrations. This fare is the traditional St. Patrick’s Day meal, , Americans consuming 2.4 billion pounds of cabbage in 2005, just on that day alone.

Irish Catholics, by tradition over thousands of years, have celebrated this special day by first attending church, then going on to celebrate from mid-afternoon with enormous meals and plenty of booze. Despite the date being mid-lent – when Catholics should not be eating meat at all – the church waived the rules for the Irish, who tended to feast on Bacon and boiled cabbage.

To be perfectly honest, what was originally meant to be observed as a religious holiday got changed by US traditions into a day of parades and giant parties. Wherever you go these days in Europe, especially the UK. St Patrick’s day is no more than an excuse for a massive binge wearing silly leprechaun hats and playing silly pranks.

Even so, those who recognize the St. Patrick’s Day celebration treat  it very differently according to location, but who was Saint Patrick really? Much of his life, truth be told is very mysterious, though one famous legend describes how he managed to banish all snakes from Ireland, sending them slithering into the sea and drowning themselves.

St. Patrick is known to have been born in England, near the end of the 4th century, to wealthy parents. Aged 15, he was the victim of kidnap – by Irish pirates – from his parent’s estate in Roman Britain,  before being sold into slavery in Ireland, which lasted six years. After escaping, he penned a letter telling how an angel had spoken him in a dream, telling him to become a missionary in Ireland.

It seems that Patrick did indeed attend priest training, becoming first a priest and eventually bishop there, converting many Irish people from paganism to Christianity. Believed to have died in 460 A.D., on March 17, when many people, across the whole of Ireland, mourned his death so deeply that from that grew the celebration we know today.

St. Patrick’s Day was first recognized in the USA, as a national holiday, after Irish people in their thousands migrated here, with families in tow, during the 1880s potato famine. They naturally also brought their own traditions, and what started off  as small community affairs soon expanded outwards, St. Patrick’s Day celebrations these days full-on extravaganzas in  America.

First New York City St. Patrick’s Day parade happened on March 17, 1762, Irish soldiers serving with the English military marching through the streets. With almost 35million Americans claiming Irish ancestry, small wonder that more than 100 US cities hold public festivities these days.

New York still lays claim to the largest Irish parade, even the White House joining in by adding bright green dye to North and South lawn fountains on the day. Thing is that St. Patrick himself would have found this all appalling because his colour was always actually blue, but the legend of the Emerald Isle and Shamrock made all the difference.

Globally there are strange events happening every year, like  the annual tomato fight at Bunol, in Spain, but the following are among  the oddest annual festivals you might ever visit, and maybe worth, one day aiming to go and  see.

The Chinese Festival of the Hungry Ghosts – Yue Lan -n is celebrated to mark the day when, according to Chinese belief, a doorway to the underworld opens, letting restless spirits wander the earth freely. In an effort to appease the spirits, fake money is burned as well as paper models of possessions, so passing these luxuries on to the spirit world. The festival is celebrated over two or three days, streets lit with paper lanterns, incense burned to deter ghosts, and fireworks set off in some areas

Thailand is home to the Songkran Festival – a real fun event happening during Thailand’s hottest month of  April. Songkran is actually nothing more than the biggest water fight on earth friends, and strangers, splashing each other with hoses, water balloons , or anything other water carrier. This dousing with water was originally more ceremonial in nature, but has gradually become nothing more than a wild, wet celebration,  lasting from 3 to 10 days, depending on which in Thai region you are.

Thaipusam,  popular in Singapore and Malaysia, but nowhere near as enthusiastically as it is celebrated in South India, is a really odd festival which originated among the Tamil community as a Hindu festival, in either January or February on the day of a full moon. Thaipusam means Star, at the highest point in literal translation, celebration marking the day Goddess Parvati gave Murugan  a spear that he might defeat Soorapadman the evil demon, festivities kicking off with begin with devotees cleaning  themselves thoroughly bathing. Mortification of flesh is the biggest aim of this festival, the more pain endured by the devotee, the greater the blessing of God. This ensures that devotees pierce faces and bodies, with sharp skewers, and try to pull heavy weights via flesh-tugging hooks, so not for the squeamish tourists out there.

The Japanese, Shinto fertility festival Kanamara Matsuri  , held each year, sees people creating giant images, representing the male penis, from anything they have to hand . The worship of these huge penis idols comes about because, in Japanese culture, the penis is regarded as a symbol of fertility, and the gateway to the next generation. First Sunday of April is when the celebrations take place each year penis models made mostly  from  candles, candy, and vegetables are paraded through the city.  The local prostitute girls offer sacrifices to  giant penises, at the same time praying to safeguard themselves from various sexually transmitted diseases.

Weird festivals are commonplace in Japan, one of themore bizarre Hadaka Matsuri,  when people simply strip off in public, thousands of men appearing on the street of their various Japanese cities, naked, except for  pieces of loin cloth around their organs in some cases. This freaky festival is nearly 500 years old, and  based on the belief that naked men have more potential for absorbing bad evils and omens, so  anybody touching them gets freed from all bad spirits, and evils haunting them, making this a very tactile celebration.

El Colacho, is celebrated in Spain – also dubbed the Devil’s Jump, in which people put their very young babies onto a mattress, then sit back and watch happily as others jump across them. Anybody can jump over this infant-laden mattress, in spite of of social activist outrage at the offensiveness and potentially deadly consequences of such actions. Spanish people believe that the jumping drives off  sin committed in previous lives, guarding the hapless babes babies against future illness, and evil spirits. How weird is that?

Possibly the most, certainly the messiest, most fantastic and fun-filled celebration of life itself is the South Korean Boryeong mud bath annual festival.  Getting dirty is the whole point of this glorious wallow, messing everyone around you up, this gooey mud, considered very effective at treating any skin problems, showing that fun can be of medical benefit, in more ways than one, even if it does mean getting down and dirty.

Ever wondered how it is that, every time a man sees an attractive girl, the question of how he can get physically close her, becomes uppermost in his mind physically, yet, subconsciously, he will also be picturing the girl’s mother, wondering if that is where she gets her looks.  This strange but true phenomenon stems back to ancient mythology, and Oedipus’s love for his mother.

It is, after all, those women who become mothers, that provide men with objects of sexual desire, by giving birth to the girls in question. There is a lot of speculation about the origins of the Mother’s day celebrations, some historians claiming that, in reality, it all began with the ancient spring festival, in which the Greeks of the time gave thanks to Rhea, wife of Cronus and mother of the gods and goddesses, for the bounty of her womb.

Romans held their own festival, very much akin to Mother’s day, in which they all prostrated themselves, in worship of Cybele, such ceremonies, honoring this goddess, having  began 250 years before the birth of Christ. Hilaria, as this old Roman religious festival was known. lasted from March 15 to 18 evey year, three days of feasting and celebration!

“Mothering Sunday” in the United Kingdom, observed on the fourth Sunday of the religious period known as Lent,  sometimes called mid-lent Sunday, is the day each year upon which this occasion falls nowadays. Mother Church, some would tell you, was substituted for mother goddess, at some unspecified time in history, custom beginning to dictate that visiting the church in which one had been baptized, was the proper thing to do on this day.

Those attending thier ‘mother church’, within their own parish normally,  always appeared laden with offerings to god. In  17th century England, young people, who had been employed away from home, as apprentices or servants, would return home on Mothering Sunday, bringing their mothers small gifts, or a “mothering cake”.

Furmety, which comprised of wheat grains boiled in sweet milk, sugared and spiced, was sometimes what they brought, while those from Northern England, and indeed Scotland, preferred to serve carlings as refreshments, which were pancakes, made of steeped pease, and fried in butter, with pepper and salt, the reason why, in that part of the country, this day was known as Carling Sunday, instead of Mother’s Day

Julia Ward Howe, in the USA, in 1872, was the person that first suggested the idea of Mother’s Day, imagining the day being dedicated to world peace,  though historians cite one Anna M. Jarvis, who lived from 1864 to 1948, as the woman who originated the  American version of this celebration. Though she was never married herself, she was dedicated to her own mother,  and was a minister’s daughter, teaching Sunday School, to children, in the Andrews Methodist Church of Grafton, West Virginia, for over twenty years.

Her mother’s died in 1907, and in 1909, she and her friends began a campaign, to get support for a national Mother’s Day holiday in the USA. She felt that children, not surprisingly, often failed to be appreciative enough of their mothers, during their lifetimes, hoping that a  Mother’s Day would strengthen family bonds, through celebration.  Mother’s Day observance began, in America, with  a church service, on May 10th 1908, in honor of Mrs. Anna Reese Jarvis, at the request of her daughter, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The governor of West Virginia made the first official Mother’s Day proclamation, in 1910, when  Oklahoma also celebrated, and by 1911, every state was joining in

Mexico, Canada, China, Japan, South America and Africa all gleefully joined the international Mother’s Day club, if you will, and  The Mother’s Day International Association was incorporated on December 12, 1912.  In may 1913, the House of Representatives, in Washington, unanimously adopted a resolution, requesting that  the President, his Cabinet, members and all federal government officials wear a white carnation on Mother’s Day, this flower having become symbolic of the celebration, which was now global

On May 8th 1914, congress passed another Joint Resolution, designating that Mother’s Day should fall each year on the second Sunday in May, the U.S. flag to be displayed on government buildings, and at  homes, “as a public expression of our love and reverence for the mothers of our country.” President Woodrow Wilson made Mother’s Day an official national holiday.

We owe a debt of eternally gratitude,  to these far-sighted people, for theymade it possible for us all, on that special day each year, to pamper the wonderful women who gave us all the life that we enjoy. The biggest vote of thanks, that we can ever give to all the mothers, can never be enough, for where would we be without them?  

 Pancake Day

If you live
in the UK or most other English speaking countries, you probably ate pancakes
yesterday. The tradition dates back hundreds of years and is steeped in
cultural and religious history.

Although for
many protestant believers, Shrove Tuesday, the official name for Pancake Day,
holds no particular religious significance, – for Catholics, Anglicans and
Orthodox Christians, the day is still observed with confession and absolution,
in addition to feasting and rejoicing. 
The name “Shove Tuesday” is derived from the word “shrive” which means
to confess and receive absolution. Lent, which immediately follows is a period
of cleansing, wherein a person brings their lusts and appetites under subjection
through abstention and self-sacrifice. The concept behind this practice is
found in 1 Corinthians 9:27, where the apostle Paul states: “I buffet my body
and make it my slave…” Ironically, Shrove Tuesday has evolved into a day of
frivolity and indulgence, during which people participate in as much pleasure
and self-gratification as they can before Lent begins.    

The origins of Pancake Day date back to the middle ages when,
as in contemporary times, food items like meats, fats, eggs and milk were restricted
during Lent. To keep such foods from being wasted, families would have big
feasts on Shrove Tuesday in order to get rid of those items that would most
certainly spoil over the next forty days. The English tradition of eating
pancakes on that day came about as a way to use up as much milk, fats and eggs
as possible before Ash Wednesday began. In France, the consumption of all fats
and fatty foods on Shrove Tuesday coined the word “Fat Tuesday” or Mardi Gras”.

The pancake
races, still held in the UK, also began there and are thought to date back to
1445. As the story goes a woman had lost track of the time on Strove Tuesday,
and was busy cooking pancakes in her kitchen. Suddenly she heard the church
bells ringing to call the faithful to church for confession. She raced out of
her house and ran all the way to church; still holding her frying pan and
wearing her apron! One of the most famous races is held at Olney in
Buckinghamshire over a 415 yard course. The rules are strict; contestants have
to toss their pancake at both the start and finish, as well as wearing an apron
and a scarf. The race is followed by a church service.

 In Eastern Europe, the Carnival
celebrations include boisterous processions where people in large masks parade
around and play jokes on bystanders. The masks are often caricatures of
individuals from traditional folklore. Men and women will dress as one another
and engage in gendered mimicry. The day is filled with eating, drinking,
fortune telling, and practical jokes.

most prominent customs are the balls and pageants in New Orleans and Rio de
Janiero. Like Eastern European celebrations, participants wear masks and
costumes, many of which are quite flamboyant and elaborate. Rio has a parade of
multi-colored feathers, which include hundreds of dancers dressed in costumes
decked with feathers, all dancing the samba. In New Orleans, Mardi Gras
includes a variety of parades featuring grand floats and giant effigies of
eccentric characters. There is much eating, drinking, and dancing, as well as
practical jokes and humorous street plays.

What Does Valentine’s Day Mean

In today’s world, society the meaning of St Valentine’s Day means LOVE.  It’s a celebration of, whereby, men and women treat one another with loving affection; by doing romantic things towards one another.  Baring cards; gifts; meals; chocolates, all this contributes towards some kind of sexual romantic ritual to be alone together; on this special day 14th February, St Valentine’s Day.

How did St Valentine’s Day transpire?  Where did it come from?

All this originates from Pagan and Christian concepts, customs and beliefs.  It had been an attempt to convert Pagan traditions of Sexual festivities worshiping Gods and Idols.  Celebrating Lupercalia (known as the “festival of sexual license”).  On the Feast day of Juno Februata a Roman Goddess of Love (fever), purification and also for women and marriage:  These rituals used be celebrated on the 15th February and got changed to 14th February by ancient Romans done in honour of the Hunter God Lupercus of fertility, light and protection; they believed it would protect them from wolves devouring life stock and people.

How these ceremonies were done, were small pieces of paper with teenage girls names written on them put in a ballot boxes; would be drawn at random by teenage boys.  This would join them together as sexual partners for a year, also joining them in festivities and erotic games throughout Rome for the feast of Juno Februata.  This custom lasted for centuries with the ancient Romans.

The festival Juno Februata had been renamed to that of ‘Feast of Purification of the Virgin Mary’.  The dates were changed by Pope Gelasius from 14th to 2nd of February, then back to the 14th February known as Candlesmas day ‘The presentation of the Lord’ and also known as ‘The Purification of the Blessed Virgin and the feast of ‘The Protection of Christ’.

Christianity was the official religion of the Romans in A.D. 325.  Church leaders wanted to abolish Pagan festivals and ‘Lupercalia’ which was very high on their list. It was not until A.D. 496 the Church of Rome was powerless to rid the festival of ‘Lupercalia’; Instead Pope Gelasius changed the dates from the 15th to the 14th February and called it St Valentine’s Day as mentioned earlier.  (After one of the church’s Saints who had been executed in A. D. 270 by a Roman Emperor for his beliefs).

According to Catholicism it is known three St Valentine’s all of them martyrs.  One a Bishop of Interamna (modern Terni), one a priest at Rome, the other who suffered in Africa with his companions, who is not identified: Several men named Valentine, who had been made Saints, were merged in to one official day, St Valentine’s Day as we know it today.

The church could not totally eliminate ‘Lupercalia’.  So they decided to put names of Saints to be elected to be drawn unsystematically by teenage boys and girls, for them to emulate the Saints life, chosen.  The church saw it as ‘Christianizing it’ from pagan ways. 

Men still practised ‘Lupercalia’ under a water-downed version, by sending woman romantic messages and notes, declaring their undying love, under the name of St Valentine.  Over the centuries by using this method, cards started to evolve at the end of the 18th and early 19th centuries.  These cards would be decorated with painted pictures of flowers; cupid; hearts and even lace attached to them were used instead for St Valentine’s Day.

Where does the actual name Valentine come from?  It derives from a Latin word Valentinus – Valens ‘”to be strong and mighty”‘.  It is portrayed through religious principles from the bible where it is described ‘a man named Nimrod who was mighty and strong hunted before the Lord with a bow and arrow’.

People of the world took on this Roman mythology and used the Latin word Valentinus – Valens in their own native language where they worshiped their own gods. The Romans initially copied Greek mythology.

The Greeks – Lupercus was known as the hunter God.  The Romans – Lupercus was known as the hunter God, and also known as Pan God of light.  The Phoenicians worshipped the same as the Roman and Greeks.  Therefore, their Lupercus was known as Baal, the Sun God.  Baal was one of many different names for Nimrod, ‘A Mighty Hunter, Especially of Wolves, and the list goes on and on.  Out of all of these mythical names of Gods, Cupid the God of desire, affection and erotic love, the son of Venus the Goddess of Love, beauty, sex and fertility arose.  The Pagan devotion for ‘Lupercalia’ developed in to religious Christianity faith; it all progressed from the bible.

All of this when you look through the eyes of Christianity and its beliefs from the bible; ‘.Exodus 20:3 Thou shalt have no other gods before me.  ‘Leviticus 19:18 Thou shalt not avenge, nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people, but thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself: I am the LORD’.  Is not what ‘God’ did; make man in his own image; if you are a believer in God then you would agree.  If you are a Romantic and A lover then you must believe in the God of Cupid (desire), and the Goddess Venus. (Love) to this you would agree, which of these Gods do you believe in?

St Valentine’s Day is all about loving relationships, who you Love and Cherish. Also, if someone admires you would like to get to know you; so you can be loved and can love back.

The Picture of Whitney Houston came from the below site

 http://www.picgifs.com/celebrities/whitney-houston/8526/celebrities-whitney-houston-586954/

© Copyright 2012

This poem was written to how I had seen relationships and marriages break down and break up with no reconciliation, due to various circumstances, that destroyed the love between couples.

Valentine Won’t You Be Mine

Valentine! Valentine! Won’t you be mine?

No more lies only but truths.

It does not matter what age you are,

Be it young, be it old

Stand up and be bold.

Don’t let the years roll by,

As time will fly.

Some say love is strong,

People do try to interfere.

Don’t be beaten, don’t break, don’t fear.

Because at last wedding bells you hear.

Valentine! Valentine won’t you be mine.

The day arrives with love, joy and pride,

You the groom, and your bride.

No more mud slinging, No more dirt.

From times that have gone by with hurt.

From people who lied and made trouble,

Out of jealousy, greed that’s a double!

The feelings that are about to be destroyed

Made you the groom and your bride annoyed.

Because the years did not pass

And now you are both happy at last.

Valentine, Valentine won’t you be mine.

© Copyright 2012

In the South, the women get up early in the morning and sweep the portion in front of their main gate and then wash the place by sprinkling water. Then they draw designs with the help of kolam powder or rice flour.

A simple kolam:

Image via Wikipedia

Originally, it was a custom to use rice flour to draw kolams. This was done in order to feed small insects like ants, and birds like sparrows and crows and creatures like the squirrels. Even today some women follow this while many have turned to using kolam powder made with limestone.

Kolams are beautiful designs drawn through lines – curved and straight – and some have dots kept before they are joined together to make a lovely design.

During days of festivals and celebrations, these kolams are drawn in big sizes and decorated with color powder to make them look more attractive. In Kerala, rangolis are decorated with flowers during a festival called Onam which marks the beginning of their New Year.

A colorful kolam on a festival day:

Image via Wikipedia

In South India, in Tamilnadu, kolam competitions are held and prizes are given for the best kolam. During the month of Margazhi (which is in December), women get up very early in the morning and draw these kolams with rice flour. This is supposed to be winter season and a time when ants and birds find it difficult to get food. Hence our ancestors had designed it this way of feeding the needy.

Image via Wikipedia

In the South, there is another way of drawing these kolams during festive seasons. Rice is soaked in water for an hour or two and then ground into a fine paste. Water is added to make it into a thin liquid. By wetting a small piece of cloth in this liquid, curves and lines are drawn to make a beautiful kolam. This looks bright when it gets dried. This kolam is bordered with a red powder (again wetted) called “Kaavi” in Tamil.

Image via Wikipedia

Another interesting aspect of this art is it helps the women as a form of exercise too as they have to bend down while drawing these kolams. So kolam also helps one to keep oneself fit… 

Now-a-days, individual houses have given way to many high rise apartments and flat systems have become common in cities. Hence there is no space for drawing kolams. Instead, flat owners paste kolam stickers in front of the doorstep. But in villages and small towns, kolam is still being drawn. People consider it a good omen also to have kolams in front of their gates. Though it is sad to see the decline of a beautiful art in cities, it is heartening to see it alive in some places at least.   

About a week ago, streams of red lanterns were strung around everyhere, arguably the most famous of the decorations that are festooned. Tasselled shaped cloth ornaments are hung up, usually in people’s houses or on the front of doors. The lanterns are strung everywhere, inside and out.

A few blocks from where I’m living, street sellers manning moving stalls have them all cluttered with strings of red and red: cloths of chilies, lanterns, the tasselled, and all sorts of dragon designs as well as keeping the precious decorations covered over with thick plastic tarpaulins. I repeat – it has and is raining – and this year’s animal or mascot sign is the dragon which, tying in the with the Spring Festival celebrations, means good luck and authority. The rest of the festival means happiness, contentment, getting together with friends, associates and family which is why Chinese go to town during this time and hand make their ‘Jaozi’ – dumplings, dough wrapped in meat fillings which are boiled.

Chinese, usually, find it hard to resist setting off bangers and pther fireworks. The Spring Festival celebrations are no exception. If you are looking for a quiet time because it’s the holidays, forget it. I was just hitting the sack the other night, thinking all was going to be quiet on the western front, when all of a sudden, firecrackers were set off – a five-minute din which sounded as though everything was crashing or raining down all around.

The wet weather has an unpleasant raw feeling – wet and an extra dose of cold clashing – so it wasn’t ideal for staying out too long.

The nearest supermarket was driving me nuts. I hate crowded places at the best of times, but shopping trolleys and bodies in the way was just the last straw, particularly as Chinese are absolutely unconscious of showing any consideration if they knock against or brush your body with themselves, their baskets, their trolleys. I kept my elbow out bent on purpose.

So, there you have them…some of the Chinese New Year Festival happening in a nutshell. They’re a bit like Christmas and New Year in the west, although not quite, either.

A New Years Resolution 

Now Christmas is past,

All the love, joy, and peace we share,

Has made me think at last,

New Year’s eve, will it be fair.

To grant everyone’s wishes,

To make sure no-one misses,

To stop famine, wars, abusiveness and pollution,

With these 12 days of Christmas,

With the New Year’s resolution.

Let the old year out!

The New year in without a doubt,

Is that not what Christmas is all about?

To keep Joy, love and peace,

To make sure word gets around,

For those people in need, close and dear,

All the year round,

Wishing everyone a Happy New year.

As the minutes tick by,

2011 will fly,

For all the world to see,

2012 will be.

No fuss, no fury, in the months to come,

O Lord, let your will be done.

Let the homeless be homed,

Let the abusiveness stop,

So there no tears to mop.

Let the world shine in peace,

Let there be love and joy,

For every man, woman, girl and boy.

Let the cruelty stop, to man’s best friend

Let the insanity end.

Let no-one be forgot

Auld Lang Syne.

© Copyright 2011