Monday, February 26, 2007

Chinese New Year

I created this blog during the celebration days of the Chinese new year 4705, which coincides with year 2007 in the Gregorian calender we use. and I believe it's quite convenient to shed some light on this event. Yesterday I was changing the TV channels in search of another depressing piece of world news ... of a low-budget movie ... a freak video clip with bad tune ... a useless talk show that never ends up with clear results ... I was searching anything just to let the time passing midnight so I can go to bed satisfied that I am still young and can stay up late at night, although I was struggling to stay awake 'til that hour. What I new later is that the festival that takes place from the first day of the first month in the Chinese year lasts until the fifteenth day of the month. the year 4705 has begun in the 18th day of February this year, and it does not necessarily start at this day every year since it is a lunar calender with each month begining in the darkest day, just like the Hijri calender. and what I also knew is that year 4705 is the year of the pig, and this has a story beyond. The legend says that Buddah in his era asked the animals to come in the new Chinese year, and 12 animals attended so he named the years after these animals. and Buddah said that a person born in a particular animal year would have some of the feautres of that animal in his personality. when I made my year of birth conversion to the Chinese one, I discovered that I was born in the year of the monkey! do I really have a monkey attitude?! I don't know