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!
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
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
Done by,
Gan Ding Zhan
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
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)
Done by :
Ng Hui Mei (Lisa)
Monday, February 25, 2008
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
Sunday, February 17, 2008
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