Different Celebrated Forms Of Chinese Mid-autumn Day

For thousands of years, the Chinese people have related the vicissitudes of life to changes of the moon as it waxes and wanes; joy and sorrow, parting and reunion. Because the full moon is round and symbolizes reunion, the Mid-Autumn Festival is also known as the festival of reunion. All family members try to get together on this special day. Those who can not return home watch the bright moonlight and feel deep longing for their loved ones.Today, festivities centered about the Mid-Autumn Festival are more varied. After a family reunion dinner, many people like to go out to attend special performances in parks or on public squares.
People in different parts of China have different ways to celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival. In Guangzhou in South China, a huge lantern show is a big attraction for local citizens. Thousands of differently shaped lanterns are lit, forming a fantastic contrast with the bright moonlight.In East China’s Zhejiang Province, watching the flood tide of the Qian-tang River during the Mid-Autumn Festival is not only a must for local people, but also an attraction for those from other parts of the country. The ebb and flow of tides coincide with the waxing and waning of the moon as it exerts a strong gravitational pull. In mid autumn, the sun, earth and moon send out strong gravitational forces upon the seas. The oath of the Qiantang River is shaped like a bugle. So the flood tide which forms at the narrow mouth is particularly impressive. Spectators crowd on the river bank, watching the roaring waves. At its peak, the tide rises as high as three and a half meters.
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Chinese Mid-autumn Day

The joyous Mid-Autumn Festival, the third and last festival for the living, was celebrated on the fifteenth day of the eighth moon, around the time of the autumn equinox. Many referred to it simply as the "Fifteenth of the Eighth Moon". In the Western calendar, the day of the festival usually occurred sometime between the second week of September and the second week ofOctober.This day was also considered a harvest festival since fruits, vegetables and grain had been harvested by this time and food was abundant. With delinquent accounts settled prior to the festival , it was a time for relaxation and celebration. Food offerings were placed on an altar set up in the courtyard. Apples, pears, peaches, grapes, pomegranates , melons, oranges and pomelos might be seen. Special foods for the festival included moon cakes, cooked taro, edible snails from the taro patches or rice paddies cooked with sweet basil, and water caltrope, a type of water chestnut resembling black buffalo horns. Some people insisted that cooked taro be included because at the time of creation, taro was the first food discovered at night in the moonlight. Of all these foods, it could not be omitted from the Mid-Autumn Festival.The round moon cakes, measuring about three inches in diameter and one and a half inches in thickness, resembled Western fruitcakes in taste and consistency. These cakes were made with melon seeds, lotus seeds, almonds, minced meats, bean paste, orange peels and lard. A golden yolk from a salted duck egg was placed at the center of each cake, and the golden brown crust was decorated with symbols of the festival. Traditionally, thirteen moon cakes were piled in a pyramid to symbolize the thirteen moons of a "complete year," that is, twelve moons plus one intercalary moon.One-on-one online live (not pre-recorded) Chinese lessons with professional and native Chinese teachers.Entering :http://www.echineselearning.com and Free Trial Now!

The Origin of Chinese Mid-Autumn Day

The Chinese Mid-Autumn Day this year is coming at 14th Sep. But do you know the origin of Chinese Mid-Autumn Day?
The Mid-Autumn Festival is a traditional festivity for both the Han and minority nationalities. The custom of worshipping the moon (called xi yue in Chinese) can be traced back as far as the ancient Xia and Shang Dynasties (2000 B.C.-1066 B.C.). In the Zhou Dynasty(1066 B.C.-221 B.C.), people hold ceremonies to greet winter and worship the moon whenever the Mid-Autumn Festival sets in. It becomes very prevalent in the Tang Dynasty(618-907 A.D.) that people enjoy and worship the full moon. In the Southern Song Dynasty (1127-1279 A.D.), however, people send round moon cakes to their relatives as gifts in expression of their best wishes of family reunion. When it becomes dark, they look up at the full silver moon or go sightseeing on lakes to celebrate the festival. Since the Ming (1368-1644 A.D. ) and Qing Dynasties (1644-1911A.D.), the custom of Mid-Autumn Festival celebration becomes unprecedented popular. Together with the celebration there appear some special customs in different parts of the country, such as burning incense, planting Mid-Autumn trees, lighting lanterns on towers and fire dragon dances. However, the custom of playing under the moon is not so popular as it used to be nowadays, but it is not less popular to enjoy the bright silver moon. Whenever the festival sets in, people will look up at the full silver moon, drinking wine to celebrate their happy life or thinking of their relatives and friends far from home, and extending all of their best wishes to them.
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Chinese Valentine’s Day

Valentine’s Day is a popular festival for lovers in western countries. On this day, sweethearts buy cards, candy, flowers and romantic dinners to prove their devotion to the one they adore. People fallen in love always dream each day to be Valentine’s Day. While it has been August now, for those sweethearts who are living and working in western countries, the next Valentine’s Day will be about six months later. What a pity!It is a luck that the Chinese Valentine’s Day has come. It falls on the 7th of August this year. In Chinese lunar calendar, it is on July 7, thus it has another name—Seventh Eve. Have you planned to spend a Valentine’s Day in China with your sweetheart in these days? It must be a quite different one because there are totally different customs and traditions for this day. The first one is that on Seventh Eve people always release lotus lanterns on water. As darkness falls, surfaces of rivers, lakes, and ponds are dotted with the lanterns that young men and women have released. The lanterns move slowly on the water, carrying with them the longings of young men and women for a perfect marriage. Under these circumstances, the sparkling stars in the sky, the lotus lanterns in the water, and the lovers in the moonlight or in the light of the lanterns together form the most beautiful and romantic scene on earth! Another one is to sit in the courtyard on Seventh Eve to watch the Cowherd (the Altair) and Weaver Girl (the Vega) stars. It has become a fixed custom in the Chinese culture. On a clear late summer night, the two stars can be seen facing each other across the broad Milky Way. On this night, girls will face the bright moon and pray to heaven for a lover that can satisfy their heart’s desire Why do people watch the Cowherd and Weaver Girl stars on the evening of the Valentine’s Day? That is because the two very bright stars are named on the basis of a fairy tale—the love story of Cowherd and the Weaver Girl. It was said that the Weaver Girl was the 7th daughter of the Jade Emperor. One day while visiting the earth and bathing together with her sisters in a river, she was seen by the Cowherd, a young farmer who had once rescued a holy cow. The holy cow persuaded the Cowherd to take away the clothes of the Weaver Girl. In the process of searching for her clothes, the Weaver Girl fell in love with the Cowherd and they got married very soon. The Cowherd worked in the fields while the Weaver Girl weaved at home, and they lived a happy life. However, the Weaver Girl’s absence was discovered by her mother, Wang Mu, the Jade Emperor’s wife, and she was enraged and took the Weaver Girl to fly back to heaven. The Cowherd flew after them with the help of the holy cow. Just as he was about to catch up with them, Queen Mother of Heaven, removed her silver hairpin and drew a line with it behind her. Immediately, a huge river appeared between the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl. This river is then called “the Silver River”, known in the West as the Milky Way. As a result, the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl were ruthlessly separated. Because of missing the Cowherd who was kept at the other side of the Milky Way, the Weaver Girl wept every day. Wang Mu took pity on the couple and she thus allowed them to meet once a year. Their love moved magpies. On the seventh eve of July in each lunar year, all the magpies would flock together to build a bridge over the Silver River so that the couple were able to meet each other on the bridge. Later, the poor couple each became a star. The Cowherd is Altair and the Weaver Girl is Vega. In ancient times, Seventh Eve was a festival for young girls who would put on best clothes to celebrate the annual meeting of the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl. They would also kowtow before offerings in the courtyard to the Weaver Girl and the Cowherd and pray for ingenuity. Chinese people nowadays no longer hold such activities for the day has turned to be a day for sweethearts. However, the day doesn’t lose its origin but is endowed with new meaning in modern social atmosphere. The annual celebration of the day not only continuously reminds Chinese people of the traditional custom and strengthens the love for the Chinese culture but also gives chances to people to show their love. Therefore, the day has become very popular among young people. “The Cowherd and Weaver” is an extremely influential fairy tale in Chinese culture. For those foreigners who are interested in Chinese culture should have known the tale but may not have a chance to celebrate the day by them in Chinese way. Therefore, foreigners had better try to celebrate this Chinese Valentine’s Day coming on August 7 this year, the previous day before the Beijing Olympics Games. It must be pretty exciting to watch Olympic matches after the day you have celebrated a very romantic Chinese Valentine’s Day with your sweetheart! It is memorable, too. However, if you stay in China to have a deep comprehension of Chinese Valentine’s Day, it is necessary to learn some Chinese. Take a FREE one-on-one live lesson at eChineseLearning, a worldwide leader in Chinese language instruction.

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Chinese Lesson __《Lúnyǔ- Xué Ér》

子 曰："学 而 时 习 之，不 亦 悦 乎？有 朋 自 远 方 来，不 亦 乐 乎？人 不 知 而 不 愠，不 亦 君 子 乎？In Present-Day Chinese 孔子说："学到了（知识）并且适时去实习，不也很高兴吗？有志同道合的人从远方来，不也很快乐吗？别人不了解自己，（自己）却不抱怨，不也是个（有德的）君子吗？"In English The Master said, "To learn and in due course apply what you have learnt, isn't that also a pleasure? To have a friend coming from far away, isn't that also a delight? Not to feel piqued when your merits are not recognized by others, isn't that also gentlemanly?"子 曰："不 患 人 之 不 己 知，患 不 知 人 也。"In Present-Day Chinese 孔子说："不担忧别人不了解自己，（只）担忧自己不了解别人。In English The Master said, "I'm not worried about others not knowing me. I'm worried about not knowing others." 注释│Note 《论语- 学而》《Lúnyǔ- Xué Ér》 The Analects is a collection of remarks made by Confucius and his students and on of the most important works in the canon of the Confucian school of learning. The book is divided into 20 chapters and the first two characters of each chapter are adopted as the heading of the chapter. For example, the first chapter begins with "Xue er shi xi zhi", so this chapter is called "Xue Er". 文化链接│Tips About Confucius - Confucius was the first thinker in China's intellectual history to consider moral standard as the first and highest criterion of man's behavior and government. The core of morality, according to him, is humanity (humaneness or benevolence). "To be humane is to be a man," he said. This shows that in his view it is the quality of humanity that makes a man a man.To learn more and get a FREE one-on-one online live Chinese lesson with a professional Chinese teacher, http://www.echineselearning.com Best RegardsVeronica Leehttp://www.echineselearning.com/?a_aid=mail72E-mail:veronica.lee@echineselearning.comMSN:veronica.lee1@hotmail.comSkype:veronica.lee72Tel:(650)515-3580

Making a Telephone Call

In China people usually say "wei" (hello) first when beginning a telephone conversation. If you call an old acquaintance and recognize his/her voice, you may address him/her directly by name. Otherwise, you have to make clear who the other person is by saying, "Hello! Excuse me. Are you so-and-so?" or "Hello! Are you so-and-so?" instead of saying "I an so-and-so" first. "So-and-so" may be name of a person or a company. e.g.--Wèi, shì lǐ míng ma? (Hello! Are you Li Ming?)--Duì, shì wǒ. Nǐ shì Qí Qí ma? (Yes, I am Li Ming. You are Qi Qi, aren't you?)One usually says, "You dialed the wrong number" when receiving a wrong call.e.g.--Wèi, shì lǐ míng ma? (Hello! Are you Li Ming?)--Bú shì, nǐ dǎ cuò le. (No, you dialed the wrong number.) Do you want to learn Chinese more?One-on-one online live (not pre-recorded) Chinese lessons with professional and native Chinese teachers.Entering : http://www.echineselearning.com and Free Trial Now!