Lesson on Chinese Culture - When does the Year of the Horse begin in 2014?

Posted to Facebook - Chinese Custom & Festivities by Sin Fong Chan
Title: Lesson on Chinese Culture - When does the Year of the Horse begin in 2014?

Friday, 31st January is an important day for Chinese around the world, because this is the Chinese New Year's Day. Strictly speaking, this is the Chinese Lunar New Year's Day, Yin Li Xin Nian (阴历新年). However, this is NOT the beginning of the year of the Horse (马年).

Horse is one of the 12 zodiac animals or Sen Xiao (生肖), namely, Rat (Shu, 鼠), Ox (Niu, 牛), Tiger (Hu, 虎), Rabbit (Tu, 兔), Long (Long, 龙), Snake (Se, 蛇), Horse (Ma, 馬), Goat (Yang, 羊), Monkey (Ho, 猴), Rooster (Ji, 鸡), Dog (Gou, 狗), Pig (Zu, 猪).

2014 celebrates the year of the Horse. The New Year's Day represented by the Horse or any of the Zodiac animals in other years always falls on 4th February of the Gregorian calendar (格里高利历), or the day when spring begins in China. This day is the first day of the seasonal marker or solar term, Jie Qi (节气) known as Li Chun (立春), and marks the start of another year.

There are 24 solar terms which mark the various periods to assist farmers to decide when to plant or harvest crops. Therefore, the calendar is also known as the Agriculture calendar or Nong Li (农历). The New Year's day based on Nong Li is called the Nong Li Xin Nian (农历新年).

In short, the Year of the Horse for 2014 does NOT begin on 31st January but on Friday, 4th February, 2014.

Lesson on Chinese Culture - Four Divinities (四靈|四灵)

Posted to Facebook - Chinese Custom & Festivities by Sin Fong ChanTitle: Lesson on Chinese Culture - Four Divinities (四靈|四灵)

In Chinese mythology, there are four divine creatures, namely Long 龍|龙, Feng 鳳|凤, Qi Lin 麒麟, Gui 龜|龟. Collectively, they are known as the four divinities Si Lin (四靈|四灵) and are symbolic of propitiousness, prosperity and longevity,

The turtle is the only earthly animal while the other three are mythical creatures which have no equivalence in other cultures. For the benefit of non-Chinese, the names of the creatures have been translated as phoenix for Feng, dragon for Long and Chinese unicorn for Qi Lin.

The so called legendary creatures are no more than creation of human's imagination.

Long is the largest and the most auspicious creature; it signifies propitiousness. While the image of Long is known for centuries by people from all walks of life, including emperors, no one has ever seen one. A Long has the anatomical features of nine Earthly animals. Its mouth resembles that of a horse, its eyes and antennae those of a prawn, its beard that of a goat, its antelopes those of a deer, ears those of an ox, mane that of a lion, scales those of a carp, body that of a snake and claws those of an eagle. There are other variant lists of nine animal resemblances.

A Long can walk on land, cruise in water and fly in the clouds. It has super power. For thousands of years, feudal emperors treat it as a symbol of power and dignity, while ordinary people believe that it is the embodiment of virtue and strength.

Historically, the dragon was the symbol of the Emperor of China. The 5-clawed dragon was assigned to the Son of Heaven, the 4-clawed dragon to the nobles, and the 3-clawed dragon to the ministers. Therefore, images of Long can be seen everywhere in China - the palace, temple roof, the royal utensils, carved sculpture.

To be continued ....

Visiting places of worship with an open mind

Posted to Facebook - Life Teaching by Sin Fong Chan

Visiting places of worship with an open mind

https://www.facebook.com/notes/life-teaching-by-sin-fong-chan/visiting-places-of-worship-with-an-open-mind/538029069628424

I treat religion as a subject of knowledge.

I go to a church or cathedral but often for the wrong reason - funeral service. There are occasions when I carry my camera as a "tourist", I would enter one and even say a prayer, not for my own wellbeing, but for the many who are less fortunate than I am. Then there are Easter and Christmas concerts that I attended.

I also enter places of other faiths - and "do what the Romans do".

At a temple, Taoist or Buddhist temple, I burn joss sticks, kneel or bow depending on the circumstances. There are always statues or paintings made / drawn to the images of the Shen 神 I pay respect to. Oh yes, I say my prayers, too. When I was a child, I prayed to pass my exams, but now I pray for peace and health.

I take off my shoes, put a robe, rinse my feet when I enter a mosque. I have visited some "badly ventilated" mosques overseas near deserts with very high temperature, where the smell of the air was rather unbearable despite the fact that visitors did rinse their feet before entry. I do not how to pray in the Muslim way, so I give it a miss.

From my recollection, I believe I had visited an Hindu temple several times when I was a child, feeding the pigeons. There were statues of goddess with many arms, and god with an elephant head. The past visits help me to open a channel of dialogue with my students from India.

Visiting places of worship is definitely an experience, especially when entering it with an open mind. It is a choice to have a strong faith in one over the others or even rejecting all except one. Isn't this similar to other forms of discrimination and bias?

Lesson on Chinese Calendar

Posted to Facebook - Sin Fong Chan - Chinese Culture and Festivities
Title: Lesson on Chinese Culture - Chinese Calendar

The revolutionary government of China announced the abolition of the traditional Chinese calendar and using the Gregorian calendar as standard or official calendar since 1/1/1912.

Gregorian calendar (格里高利历) is based on the length of time the Earth rotating around the sun and is therefore known as a solar calendar or Yang Li (阳历). Gregorian calendar is also called Xi LI (西历) (Western Calendar), Gong Li (公历)(reckoning by Christian era), or Xin Li (新历) (New-style calendar).

Traditional Chinese calendar is still widely used in China and many Chinese communities outside China. It is also called Yin Li (阴历)(In opposite to Yang Li mentioned earlier), Jiu Li (旧历) (Old-style calendar), Nong Li (农历) (Farmer calendar)or Xia Li (夏历)(Xia-dynasty-style calendar). History of early calendar can be traced back to Xia Dynasty (夏朝),the first dynasty. For that reason, Chinese calendar was also known as Xia calendar (夏历).

Technically speaking, Chinese calendar is a lunisolar calendar (阴阳历). A lunisolar calendar is a calendar is based on the exact astronomical observations of the longitude of the sun and the phases of the moon.Gregorian calendar is numbered sequentially. An ordinary year has 365 days, and a leap year has an extra day added to February, making it 365 days.

Leap year happens every 4 years, except the century year, 100th year. Leap year also happens every 400th years. In short, the Gregorian calendar’s cycles repeat every 400 years or 146,097 days. The calendar mean year is 365.2425 days. This number can also be calculated as using the formula 365 + 1/4- 1/100+ 1/400 = 365.2425

In the traditional Chinese calendar,an ordinary year has 12 months and a leap year has 13 months. A leap year occurs about once every three years. An ordinary year has 353-355 days while a leap year has 383-385 days.

To work out whether a year is a leap year, one must calculate the number of new moons between the 11th month in one year, which is the month with the winter solstice (in northern hemisphere) and the 11th month in the following year. If there are 13 new moons from the start of the 11th month in the first year to the start of the 11th month in the second year, a leap month is added. The name of the leap month is the same as the previous lunar month.

In ancient China, seasonal markers or solar terms or Jie Qi (节气) mark the various periods to assist farmers to decide when to plant or harvest crops. During the Shang Dynasty (商朝)they only used four; the Zhou Dynasty (周朝) (11th century BC -221 BC), used eight; but it was Emperor Han Wu Di (汉武帝) of the Western Han Dynasty (西汉朝) introduced reforms to use 24 terms that were decided upon. Consequently, the Chinese calendar has been known as the Han calendar (汉历).

The solar terms are based on the solar calendar, determined by the ecliptic longitude of the sun. Spring Equinox or Chun Fen (春分)is when the sun is at an ecliptic longitude of 0° exactly. This day has equal lengths of day and night. However, this is NOT the first of the solar term. The first solar term is Li Chun (立春) when spring begins.

Each solar term varies by 15˚. In each month there are often two solar terms; the first one is major solar term named Jie Qi (节气) same as the collective term used, and the other is the minor solar term Zhong Qi (中气).

The following are the solar terms:

• Xiao Han (小寒) - Small Chill,Moderate cold or Cold period begins (285˚), Jie Qi (节气)
• Da Han (大寒) - Big Chill, Severe cold or Coldest period (300˚), Zhong Qi (中气)
• Li Chun (立春) - Spring begins(315˚), Jie Qi (节气)
• Yu Shui (雨水) - Rain begins or Spring showers (330˚), Zhong Qi (中气)
• Jing Zhe (惊蛰) - Insects awake from hibernation (345˚), Jie Qi (节气)
• Chun Fen (春分) - Vernal Equinox or Spring Equinox (0˚), Zhong Qi (中气)
• Qing Ming (清明) - Clear and bright (15˚), Jie Qi (节气)
• Gu Yu (谷雨) - Grain Rain or Rainfall for grain (30˚), Zhong Qi (中气)
• Li Xia (立夏) - Summer begins (45˚), Jie Qi (节气)
• Xiao Man (小满) - Grain mature to the point of producing ears (60˚), Zhong Qi (中气)
• Mang Zhong (芒种) - Grain in Ear or Corn ripens (75˚)
• Xia Zhi (夏至) - Summer Solstice (90˚), Zhong Qi (中气)
• Xiao Shu (小暑) - Moderate Heat or Hot period begins (105˚), Jie Qi (节气)
• Da Shu (大暑) - Great Heat or Hottest period (120˚), Zhong Qi (中气)
• Li Qiu (立秋) - Autumn begins (135˚), Jie Qi (节气)
• Chu Shu (处暑) - End of heat (150˚), Zhong Qi (中气)
• Bai Lu (白露) - Dew forms (165˚), Jie Qi (节气)
• Qiu Fen (秋风) - Autumn Equinox (180˚), Zhong Qi (中气)
• Han Lu (寒露) - Cold Dew (195˚), Jie Qi (节气)
• Shuang Jiang (霜降) - Frost descends (210˚)
• Li Dong (立冬) - Winter begins (225˚)
• Xiao Xue (小雪) - Light Snow or Snow begins to fall (240˚), Zhong Qi (中气)
• Da Xue (大雪) - Heavy Snow or Snows heavily (255˚), Jie Qi (节气)
• Dong Zhi (冬至) - Winter solstice (270˚), Zhong Qi (中气)

The traditional Chinese calendar does not count years in an infinite sequence. Each year is assigned a name consisting of two components within each 60-year cycle. The first component is a celestial stem called Tian Gan (天干), and the second component is a terrestrial branch called Di Zhi (地支). There are ten Tian Gan and twelve Di Zhi, and each Di Zhi is represented by a zodiac animal or Sheng Xiao (生肖).

The Tian Gan are associated with five elements, five phases or Wu Xing (五行) in their Yin (阴) and Yang (阳) forms. For those believing in Feng Shui (风水), each element / phase is associated to a colour.

• Wood (Mu, 木) - Green
• Fire (Huo, 火) - Red
• Earth (Tu, 土) - Yellow
• Metal (Jin, 金) - White
• Water (shui, 水) - Black

The elements interact with each other in the following ways:

• Wood feeds Fire
• Fire creates Earth(ash)
• Earth bears Metal
• Metal enriches Water(minerals in water)
• Water nourishes Wood

The following is a list of Tian Gan and corresponding Wu Xing:

• Jia (甲): Yang Wood
• Yi (乙): Yin Wood
• Bing (丙): Yang Fire
• Ding (丁): Yin Fire
• Wu (午): Yang Earth
• Ji (己): Yin Earth
• Geng (庚): Yang Metal
• Xin (辛): Yin Metal
• Ren (壬): Yang Water
• Gui (癸): Yin Water

The following is a list of Di Zhi and corresponding zodiac animal.

• Zi (子): Rat (Shu, 鼠)
• Chou (丑): Ox (Niu, 牛)
• Yin (寅): Tiger (Hu, 虎)
• Mao (卯): Rabbit (Tu, 兔)
• Chen (辰): Long (Long, 龙)
• Si (巳): Snake (Se, 蛇)
• Wu (午): Horse (Ma, 馬)
• Wei (未): Sheep (Yang, 羊)
• Shen (申): Monkey (Ho, 猴)
• You (酉): Rooster (Ji, 鸡)
• Xu (戌): Dog (Gou, 狗)
• Hai (亥): Pig (Zu, 猪)

Each of the two components is used sequentially. Therefore, the first year of the 60-year cycle becomes Jia Zi (甲子),the second year is Yi Chou (乙丑),and so on. When the end of a component is reached, it repeats from the start of the list. Finally, the 60th year is Gui Hai (癸亥).

A traditional new year usually begins on the second new moon after the northern hemisphere winter solstice but occasionally on the third. In short, New Year should fall on the new moon closest to the beginning of spring (in the northern hemisphere), known as Li Chun (立春).

Year 2014 is the year of green wood(en) horse, Jia Ma (甲马).