Comparing the way my family celebrate christmas with Jess's family

I find that the way my family celebrate Christmas and Jess's family are similar and different in someways. My family always gets into a fix on what should they buy as they want to get something cheap but nice, Jess's family also get into the same situation as my family. My family and relatives gets very excited about Christmas unlike Jess's family who gets so unhappy and even angry during Christmas. My family also never believe in Santa Clause, not even my little sister when she was four years old, guess she is not so gullible after all, but we still sing some Christmas songs for the Christmas spirit. I guess not every family will be alike in the way they celebrate festivals. Done by:Chris Ng(the other Christmas experience (a) is mine :-)

My experiences (a)

I love to celebrate Christmas with my family and relatives as it is my birthday and my name came from Christmas. Every year at Christmas, my family would go to my aunty's house to celebrate Christmas and my birthday as she holds a Christmas party every year and my father thought it would be more convenient to just celebrate my birthday together. We, (all the kids) always arrive one hour earlier to play games while the adults sit around and chat. Then comes the dinner where there will be turkey, kebab, curry chicken, ham, hotdogs, spaghetti, ice-cream, soft drinks and the winner of the game gets to enjoy his/her snacks. Then come the birthday cake where everyone sing happy birthday song for me and pictures were taken.(can't find the photos, hidden somewhere secret.) the after the exchange of presents, most of us went home hapilly. I feel that Christmas is a good time for all of my familly members to get together as we all sit around and chat about what happened to each other (at least the adults do.) Our relationship seems to get better and better after each Christmas, hopefully it will get better still.

My experience with Jess

What I celebrate and Jess celebrates is really different. First of all, Jess does not wear any traditional costumes while my festival have to wear a traditional costume 'han bok'(한복).Also, during Jess's festival, they exchange gifts while my festival will only receive money. One thing about my festival is that I played games with my family and relatives while Jess and his family did not really played games. Jess really did not specified which food he had but I had rice cake soup(떡꾹) which is is a tradition thing to eat. Even though there are lots of differences between Jess's festival and my festival, we have something common. The common thing is that I am sure that Jess had a fantastic time like me!
Written by:Lee Yeong Chan including the korean festival too. Forgot to put my name.

My experience with Jess

b) Like me, Jess celebrate his christmas with his family just that i also celebrate with my relatives too. We had delicious meal while Jess also got. Everyone got a present and like it although Jess did not really like his.But at least his father bought him something i think he felt happy too. But he had to milked the cow even though it is a festival where everyone gathered together to celebrate. It also a time to rest but he had to milked the cow. While i only need to sit on the sofa watching the television programme and the food will eventually come to me. I enjoy myself and felt great. Jess also enjoyed himself too.

Done by: Ng Hui Mei (Lisa)

Experiences with Jess

B) In "Bridge to Terabithia" , Jess celebrated Christmas by giving and receiving presents from his family. For me, my family would give me presents but in the form of money instead.
When Hari Raya is coming, my family usually celebrates it vibrantly unlike Jess' family which celebrates Christmas by quarelling about presents. It is tradition for my family to accept our gifts with a smile but Jess' sister complains about having something not of the same value. Hari Raya is usually celebrated with friends and family coming to visit but for Jess, they celebrate it without inviting anyone.
For his family, his whole family scrimped and saved to buy presents for one another but for me, only uncles or aunties who are married are made to give us money as they have a stable income.
There were no sayings of Jess decorating his house but for my family, we will stay up late on the eve of Hari Raya just to make sure everything is ready for the big event. We will decorate our houses with beautiful lights and lots of delicacies to eat!
Jess' family do not have any type of feast but we do! It is always made by my grandmother who cooks from the recipes passed down form my great-grandparents.It is usually made for guests who arrive at our houses. The food is also to say thank-you for coming to our house. It is kind of like a reunion dinner like Chinese New Year.

Done by,
Nur Khaliesah

MY EXPERIENCES!!!

Research on two festivals which me and my team mates have celebrated

During Chinese new year,Chinese would do spring cleaning to get rid of the bad luck and would not do any sweeping of floor during Chinese new year because it means sweeping away all the bad luck they are going to have for that year but during Christmas,people do not clean up their houses unlike the Chinese.I think the Chinese is quite superstitious about cleaning up the house before the Chinese new year and not sweeping the floor during Chinese new year unlike the Christian.Sometimes, we do really have to believe in superstitious things as it maybe logical sometimes if we do the wrong thing at the wrong time and may causes us a lot of bad luck in things we do.

Another thing that is interesting about Christmas and Chinese new year is that during Christmas,people would normally exchange presents with each other to celebrate Christmas and during Chinese new year,we would receive red packets instead of presents from the elders.

During Christmas and Chinese new year,it is also a time for Chinese and Christian to gather together and celebrate the festival together like a big family and we will play together and chat with each other during Christmas or Chinese new year.

Nevertheless,the Christian and the Chinese would gather around and wait when it is near to the time for the countdown.When the countdown is over,we would say auspicious words to each other and wish each other good luck and the atmosphere would be very high as it means a new year has come which means we should put all the sad things that happened in the previous year behind us and start off with a fresh new year.

I think that Christmas and Chinese new year is about the same as it both means that a new year is coming and we will all have a new hope for the new year and put all the unpleasant things that happened behind us.The differences between the two festivals is probably the culture,the way they think and the way they celebrated it,these and probably the things that make the two festivals look differently.

Done by,
Gan Ding Zhan,Lee Yeong Chan,Chris Ng,Nur Khaliesah and Ng Hui Mei

How does Korean celebrate their Chinese New Year

In Korea, we call Chinese New Year 'sul nal' (설날) in korean. The word 'sul' (설) means New in korean and 'nal' (날) means day. So it is basically saying New year.
When I celebrated Sul Nal, our relatives gathered to our house as my dad is the eldest son. Before it is Sul Nal, they would come to our house one day earlier and spent their night on our house.
The next day, we wear our special korean costume which is called 'Han Bok'(한복). Then every children will bow to the adults and adults will give us the money.So in my family there were my dad's mom, dad, mom, my dad's brother and thier wifes. Every children will collect money from them. After that, adults will say something good thing to us for instance, this year study hard or be healthy.
When everthing is finished, we played this game called 'Yoot Nol Yi'(윷놀이).Yoot No Yi is a traditional board game which our ancestors use to play during Sul Nal. This game is very easy to play. First we divide our teams. Then you just have to throw the dice which looks like a wooden stick. It has two side, one side is flat the other side has a bump. So number of space u move will be determined on which side will the dice fall. In this game there is four chess in each team which have to go around all the steps. When you move your chess, you can stack up your chess together and go around all the steps which is faster but dangerous because once your opponent are same step as uyou your chess have to start from the beggining. Also you can move your chess seperatly.However it will take a long time for your four chess to reach the final but safer. Sometimes we bet on our moneys too to make the game more interesting and making everybody to focus into the game. With greater money on betting , we have more pressure when we throw the dice.
After playing Yoot Nol Yi, my mom and my aunts will start to cook on their food. There is this traditional food called 'Dduk Ggook.' (떡꾹) This is a soup made out of a rice cake. We believed that once we eat the rice cake, we would get one year older so it is tradition to eat. Usually my mom and my aunts refuses to eat the Dduk Ggook as women dislikes getting older.
Finally when we finish our food, we would usually play games,chat,and watch tv.I guess this is how I celebrated my Sul Nal and most of the koreans too!

My experiences with what Jess experienced with his family during Christmas!

Compare and contrast on my experiences with what Jess experienced with his family during Christmas

During Christmas,Jess would normally exchange present with his friends but in Chinese new year,we do not exchange presents instead we receive red packets from the elderly.

During Christmas,Jess normally will receive presents from their parents during Christmas but we received red packets for Chinese new year.


During Christmas,Jess's family do not clean their houses to celebrate Christmas unlike we who do spring cleaning before the Chinese new year.


During Christmas,Jess and his family should be happy and preparing to celebrate Christmas by decorating the house but Jess and his family did not do this,we would decorate the house with plants decorations and in a happy mood to celebrate Chinese new year.


During Christmas,Jess's family did not spent a lot of money on buying present or shopping unlike we who spent a lot of money buying new clothes and shoes for Chinese new year.


During Christmas,Jess's family did not invite anyone to visit them or visiting their relatives but we do invite people to our house for gathering or pay visit to our good friends or relatives.


During Christmas,Jess's family did not have a reunion dinner together or having a meal together,we would normally have a reunion dinner with our family.


During Christmas,Jess's family is still quarreling with each other but we should not quarrel during Chinese new year because it will bring bad luck to everyone.

Done by,

Gan Ding Zhan

A festival celebrated with my family!

Every year,my family and I would travel back happily to my grandma's house which is located in Malaysia, located in Muar,Johor Bahru.All my relatives would come back from other places to have our reunion dinner with the whole family.I think having reunion dinner is important because it symbolise a family united again and I am very lucky to be able to have reunion dinner with some of my relatives which I have not seen for a long time.Reunion dinner can also bring us closer to each other even though we have not seen each other for a long time.My grandma and my mother and some of my aunt will help in cooking the dishes for the reunion dinner.The dishes in the reunion dinner consist of fish,meat,vegetable,soup and many other delicious dishes which always suits my appetite.Among all the dishes,i like the soup best because it is hot and spicy and it got abalone in it.After the reunion dinner,we would gather around in the living room to talk about what we had done the previous year.My cousin and I would chatter nineteen to dozens about our school life and games we played online to keep in touch with each other.When we got bored of chatting,we sometimes do play with card games while we wait for the time to pass.When the time gets nearer to the midnight,we would we very excited as we would be getting ready to play with fire works and lighting up the fire crackers,the fire crackers cracked so loud that I have to cover my ears.We would play fire works for at least half an hour before we had enough fun of it.When we finished playing fire works,I would be the one starting to doze off in sofa.The next day,we would normally receive some guest to visit us and we would be very happy because we would get "hong baos" from the guest that visited us.We will also receive "hong baos" from our elderly,we will secretly open the red packets in one corner and see how much money it contains.After few days of the Chinese new year holidays,we would have to go back to Singapore and that's the part I hated it the most because we have to leave our grandma's house and say goodbye to our relatives and can't see them till next year,even though we will meet up with them sometime in the year.I feel that Chinese new year is an very important festival for the Chinese as it means a time for the family to gather again.I feel happy after the Chinese new year celebration even though it is very short.





Done by,

Gan Ding Zhan

A memorable Christmas of mine !

Last year, my christmas was a memorable one. Like every year, my family will always go to my aunt's place to spend our christmas there. All the other aunts and uncles will also celebrate with us together. It is like a family gathering, where we all come together to wish each other. =D I recieved alot of presents too ! I got alot of cousins and they are all working, thus they gave me presents and i liked them alot ! They were sooo sweet. The feeling that i felt when we gathered together was very heartwarming as we all sat together to eat the delicious food that my mother and aunts had cooked. And the whole bunch of us, around more than 15 people were playing, talking and doing many other exciting and fun things. The christmas tree was glowing, table full of food and the clock was ticking. Nearing midnight, we will then sit in the living room preparing for the countdown ! After the countdown, we cheered and resumed what we were doing. The atmosphere was high! =) When it was later, all of us were tired, so we went home. I was kind of reluctant as it was a marvellous night although it was just like a normal family gathering we had usually.

Done by :
Ng Hui Mei (Lisa)

FESTIVALS!!!

a)This picture shows my family celebrating HARI RAYA AIDILFITRI!! It shows the ending of our fasting days, so we CELEBRATE!! It is a very happy day as this is where my whole family will get together and visit our relatives' houses. The best part is to get "hong baos" from family elders. =) It's also a family bonding session between us cousins talking about how we coped with everyday living. To me, the rapport between ourselves get closer every year. It also means celebrating any happy event enjoying what you have and to learn to cherish it as it may leave you one day. This will forever be the festival that always comes first in my mind for family togetherness.



Done by,
Nur Khaliesah

Welcome to our blog!!!! Our group consists of Hui Mei, Gan Ding Zhan, Lee Yeong Chan, Nur Khaliesah and
Chris Ng. These videos shows the relationship between Leslie and Jess growing closer. The song is from Hayden Panettiere called "try" from the movie itself.



Done by
Khaliesah.