Happy Chinese New Year

Hello everyone!!
Have a merry festive Chinese New Year season!
In current days, Chinese New Year is not only celebrated by the Chinese but by all citizens in the whole-wide world.
It is a jolly celebratory season for everyone; Malays, Indian, Taiwanese, Indonesians and so much more.
It is a multiracial tradition but mainly for Chinese as it is the main custom for them.
So for this special edition blog, we would like to accustom you a bit or two about Chinese New Year.

For start, Chinese New Year starts with the New Moon on the first day of the New Year and ends on the full moon 15 days later. The 15th day of the New Year is called the Lantern Festival. On that day, Chinese celebrate the Lantern Festival at night time with multicolor lantern displays where the children will happily carrying the lanterns with unique shape and sizes in the parade.

Basically the Chinese calendar is based on a combination of lunar and solar movements. The lunar cycle is about 29.5 days approximately. Thus, in order to "catch up" with the solar calendar the Chinese insert an extra month once every few years (seven years out of a 19-year cycle). This is the same as adding an extra day on leap year. This is why, according to the solar calendar, the Chinese New Year falls on a different date each year.

The celebration was traditionally highlighted with a religious ceremony given in honor of the Heaven and Earth, the gods of the household and the family ancestors. The sacrifice to the ancestors, the most vital of all the rituals, united the living members with those who had passed away. Deceased relatives are remembered with great respect because they were accountable for laying the foundations for the fortune and glory of the family. In other words, all celebrations whether it is celebrated mainly by the Malays, Indians, Chinese or Christians, the main point of every gathering is to reunite the bonds between every family members; new and old, to ensure that the old custom tradition is not forgotten by time and so forth.

Since 2011 according to the Chinese calendar is the year of the Rabbit, we hope this year will bring great fortune for everyone since Rabbit is said to be fortunate. Almost everything will come more easily in 2011. The year of the Rabbit also promises to bring peace, joy, calmness and many happy moments.

Therefore, we all from ELC wishes you a Fortunate Happy Chinese New Year!

Celebrate them with your love ones as enjoy every moment with them.