Comparison of how I celebrated Christmas with how Jess celebrated Christmas

I celebrated Christmas with shopping for almost 24 hours non-stop as I woke up at 4 going to Malaysia to avoid car traffic jam. I came back at about 1am to Singapore, however my father insisted on going on night shopping. We came back home at about 3am, which I almost make the car became my habitat for one night when my father on the radio to the maximum volume to wake me up.

How Jess celebrated his Christmas was very different from me. I shop but he did not. He actually celebrated his Christmas quite lonely as apart from Leslie, he does not have anyone that he is extremely close to.
What was really different was that I celebrated Christmas with a large amount of people while Jess celebrated Christmas with only Leslie.
Thus, basically, jess does not interact as much with his environment than I.

Wen Guan

Chapter six: Christmas in Bridge To Terabithia

Comparing my christmas to Jess's, i realised that although they were poor, the had a much more meaningful christmas then me. My christmas although wasn't too shabby , i feel the holiday spirit in their's and not mine. Yes there was gifts and celebration but there was somthing missing , the spirit of christmas. I knew that behind every smile from christmas , it was mostly fake. They all smiled during christmas because they were forced to. If they didn't , they would not get any presents or make their children sad. Reading Jess's christmas , it sounded like a fantasy . It was least of perfect but it was still a fantasy. For once , someone could smile freely without anything straping it down , homework , exams , tests , results ,i doubt anyone can smile freely like Jess. It would be fun to celebrate such a carefree christmas but i doubt it will ever happen.
Jack=)



How I celebrated Chinese new year
I celebrated Chinese New Year with my family. Everything seems like a rush, as we do a lot of night-shopping during the last few days before Chinese New Year.
During the first day of Chinese New Year we went to the cinema to watch a movie, called ‘the wedding game’. After that, we went home and eat the reunion dinner. It was a marvelous meal as there was lots of nice food.
During the second day of Chinese New Year, we started out at 10 am to go to our relatives’ house to collect our red packets. During our way back home or parents gave us our red packet which consists of $188 together. In total, we have a total of $488
During the third day of Chinese New Year, we stayed at home as we were so tired after the 2 long days. We gambled at home playing mahjong until past 12 midnight. However, my mother insisted that we should play longer as there was quite a long time since we have all been together.
After the day, I have to go back to school. However, I was dead beat as I hardly get any sleep since the past few days. Thus, I was late for school. I arrived school at 10am. I asked my mother why she didn’t wake me up. But she sad she had tried, but I as sleeping like a ‘pig’
WENGUAN



Why is there Easter Day
Easter is the most important religious feast in the Christian liturgical year.Christians believe that Jesus was revived from the dead three days after his crucifixion, and celebrate this resurrection on Easter Day,or Easter Sunday, two days after Good Friday. The year of his death and resurrection is estimated between the years 26 and 36 AD .
Introduction of Easter Day
Easter also refers to the season of the church year called Eastertide or the Easter Season. Traditionally the Easter Season lasted for the forty days from Easter Day until Ascension Day but now officially lasts for the fifty days until Pentecost. The first week of the Easter Season is known as Easter Week or the Octave of Easter. Easter also marks the end of Lent, a season of prayer and penance.
What is Easter Day
Easter is termed a moveable feast because it is not fixed in relation to the civil calendar. Easter falls at some point between late March and late April each year, following the cycle of the moon. After several centuries of disagreement, all churches accepted the computation of the Alexandrian Church that Easter is the first Sunday after the Paschal Full Moon, which is the first moon whose 14th day is on or after March 21.
Easter is linked to the Jewish Passover not only for much of its symbolism but also for its position in the calendar.
Many cultural elements, such as the Easter Bunny, have become part of the holiday's modern celebrations, and those aspects are often celebrated by many Christians and non-Christians alike.
By Jack=)



Chinese New Year is an occasion where my family gathers and celebrates. This year, my relatives came on New Year's Eve to have a family reunion dinner. We ate steamboat with a wide spread of ingredients. It tasted really yummy. I had fun with my cousins as we went to watch a movie as well as played video games in the arcade. During the rest of the time, i was busy playing computer games as i had really nothing to do. On the first day of Chinese New Year, i visited my maternal grandmother's house. I received many red packets and one red packet with $100! After a while, i got home and my relatives came again- more red packets. I had fun during the Chinese New Year days. On the second day, i went shopping. After shopping for many clothes and items, i went to my cousin's house. I played blackjack and won some money. I felt happy. On the rest of the 13 days, many other relatives came to visit my grandmother. The school has also reopened. I ate many Chinese New Year goodies such as the pineapple tarts. They were very sweet and tasty. I love them. I counted my money from all the red packets collected. They summed up to almost $500! I am planning to spend some of it and bank the rest. I love Chinese New Year. I think it is an occasion where family share fun, laughter, peace and joy, as well as love.
Winson



Chinese New Year is a day where all the chinese come together and rejoice about the new year. I still remember the joy gotten from recieving 'HongBao's from my relatives. However, this year was a little special. I had to act a CNY skit infront of the whole school, i was the photographer =P. It was really really scary at first but then i soon got the hang of it. I really could feel the joy of chinese new year =). The next few days of chinese new year was really cool ! My father lent a car from my cousin as he went to Japan with his mother. I feel great riding a car as it makes a change from the usual old lorry. I like the feeling of being in a car as the atmosphere there is much more different than the lorry. I cant wait for next year as my cousin bought a new car, a sports car!My family and relatives are constantly keeping in touch with each other and we are not like those who only meet once a year during Chinese Reunion dinner. We practically meet every week like a family gathering, we go shopping or have fun during the weekends. I feel like festivals or celebrations are like a form of bonding families together despite how busy he or she is. Chinese new year is a great way of finding time to know more about your relatives, if you know nothing about your realatives this would be a great way of knowing them better.
By Jack =)



Appendix 1.6A Section C

CHINESE NEW YEAR

Introduction

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 whole celebration is 15 days! unlike other holidays that are probably about only for one day) . New Year's Eve and New Year's Day are celebrated as a family affair, a time of reunion and thanksgiving.



Customs

Departed relatives are remembered with great respect because they were responsible for laying the foundations for the fortune and glory of the family.(although a happy affair during Chinese New Year, let's not forget our departed ones right?) The presence of the ancestors is acknowledged on New Year's Eve with a dinner arranged for them at the family banquet table. The spirits of the ancestors, together with the living, celebrate the onset of the New Year as one great community.It symbolizes family unity and honors the past and present generations.



Taboos and the Superstitions

The entire house should be cleaned before New Year's Day. On New Year's Eve, all brooms, brushes, dusters, dust pans and other cleaning equipment are put away. Sweeping or dusting should not be done on New Year's Day for fear that good fortune will be swept away. After New Year's Day, the floors may be swept. In sweeping, there is a superstition that if you sweep the dirt out over the threshold, you will sweep one of the family members away.



Also, to sweep the dust and dirt out of your house by the front entrance is to sweep away the good fortune of the family; it must always be swept inwards and then carried out, then no harm will follow. All dirt and rubbish must be taken out the back door.



It is considered unlucky to greet anyone in their bedroom so that is why everyone, even the sick, should get dressed and sit in the living room.


Do not use knives or scissors on New Year's Day as this may cut off fortune.

Christmas

Introduction

I'm sure all of you know about Santa Claus right? But do any of you know what santa actually means? Santa actually means SAINT! A Saint is a person who is kind and generous, and would

sacrifice himself for another fellow man. His real name is nicholas, Saint Nicholas.



What had he done?

There was a poor man who had three daughters. He was so poor, he did not have enough money for a dowry, so his daughters couldn't get married. One night, Nicholas secretly dropped a bag of gold down the chimney and into the house (This meant that the oldest daughter was then able to be married.). The bag fell into a stocking that had been hung by the fire to dry! This was repeated later with the second daughter. Finally, determined to discover the person who had given him the money, the father secretly hid by the fire every evening until he caught Nicholas dropping in a bag of gold. Nicholas begged the man to not tell anyone what he had done, because he did not want to bring attention to himself. But soon the news got out and when anyone received a secret gift, it was thought that maybe it was from Nicholas.



Who's the man?

St. Nicholas was a Bishop(A bishop is a SENIOR CLERIC) who lived in the fourth century AD in a place called Myra in Asia Minor (now called Turkey). He was a very rich man because his parents died when he was young and left him a lot of money( He was an orphan at a yougn age, but he did not want to spread his sadness, he wanted to spread happiness). He was also a very kind man and had a reputation for helping the poor and giving secret gifts to people who needed it.



What happened to him?

St. Nicholas was exiled from Myra and later put in prison during the persecution by the Emperor Diocletian. No one is really knows when he died, but it was on 6th December in either 345 or 352 AD. In 1807, his bones were stolen from Turkey by some italian merchant sailors. The bones are now kept in the Church named after him in the Italian port of Bari. On St. Nicholas feast day (6th December), the sailors of Bari still carry his statue from the Cathedral out to sea, so that he can bless the waters and so give them safe voyages throughout the year. Isn't that just sad?



What's Christmas for?

Christmas, the annual festival celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ. Christmas Day falls on December 25 and celebrates the birth of Christ in Bethlehem as recounted in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke. It is, after Easter, the most important feast in the Church's year. Since the Gospels make no mention of dates, it is not certain that Christ was born on this day.



Now you know that...

Christmas

• Christmas celebrates the birth on Jesus Christ


• The real name of Santa Claus


• What Santa has done


• What happened to Santa

Chinese New Year

• What Chinese New Year is about


• What not to do during Chinese New Year (taboos)


• Chinese New Year Customs

By: Rudolph 117 (boonhoe)



Appendix 1.6A Section B
Christmas was very silent at the Aarons house, unlike in my family, we would be eating log cakes at singing christmas carols. Jesse's family seems very distant, a little tipping over the edge to actually be a family. It was on the verge to actually becoming a group of friends instead of a family.

At the Aarons house, the girls would be excited to think about what they were going to be getting for Chirstmas from their boyfriends, and they would not stop at it, they would think about what to get for their boyfriends and friends, but at my house, we would be opening presents already, giving present to one another instead of quarelling over presents and whose this belongs to or who that belongs to.

That's the difference between my individual experience and Jesse's individual experience.
By: Rudolph 117 (boonhoe)



Appendix 1.6A Section A
A time i spent a time with my family during a special holiday? Chinese New Year is one of them. It was very fun although it was just a short 2 days, well technically, it is 3 days because of eve. On eve, my entire family was around the house practically running about decorating the house (it was kinda sad seeing it tear down into nothing but i guess you can say it was the only way as there was nothing we could do with Chinese New Year decoration when Chinese New Year has already ended). At night we had our reunion dinner, even my 78 year old grandmother was there smiling ear to ear. Then we all went to watch the LIVE performance put up by our beloved country. It was indeed a spectacular sight.

On the first day of Chinese New Year, we had waited ALL day for my darn relatives to come, my paternal relatives, but only one came, what the hell is that right? ON the second day, i went to the houses of my maternal relatives, it was really fun and we only got home at about 10+ PM. On the third day we spent the day playing together. We had spaghetti (vegetarian), though it tasted kind of weird,we all still had fun and spaghetti spilling all over our faces, it was really a sight for other families that were probably having a formal dinner and speaking very formally as if they were strangers and speaking like 'please pass the salt john' or something we has sauce all over the table and were joking all the time. I guess that's my family spending our day together.
By:Rudolph 117 (boonhoe)

Rudolph117
Jack38
Winson22
Wenguan18


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February 2009