Post by Blue on Aug 11, 2012 13:55:16 GMT
Father's Day in Taiwan as taken in the wikipedia: “In Taiwan, Father's Day is not an official holiday, but is widely observed on August 8, the eighth day of the eighth month of the year. In Mandarin Chinese, the pronunciation of both the number 8 and the month of August is bā. This pronunciation is very similar to the character "爸" "bà", which means "Papa" or "father". The Taiwanese, therefore, usually call August 8 by its nickname, "Bābā Holiday" (爸爸節).” Did call my father, who lives an hour away by phone for father's day greetings, but I haven't visited my parents for more than four weeks because of all sorts of certain things in my life that I wish I could talk about. Didn't visit him this weekend either. "Bah! Humbug!"
Chinese Valentine's Day falls on August 23. (c.f. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_Valentine%27s_Day ). Florists and chocolate factories in Asia love the fact that they get to have high peak sales from lovers twice a year (February 14th + Lunar Valentine's Day) instead of once a year.
Finally, there's the Ghost Month (c.f. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghost_Month ). On August 31st, the gates of Hades will open and the dead will be among us! People offer incense, food, and burnt offerings to the dead. Burnt offerings come in terms of paper mache fashioned into Greenbacks, Euros, I-Pads, Credit Cards, Debit Cards, 7-Elevens, I-phones, widescreen TV, BMWs, and maybe servants. As you can see, ghosts have become increasingly tech-savvy these days and exchange in foreign currency! (Many thanks to those who innovated the practice of burning paper mache people rather than offering human sacrifice!) Hypermarkets in Taiwan open 24 hours for about a week for people to purchase snacks, potato chips, chocolates, and other consumables as offering to the dead. If it weren't a festival to remember the dead, one would think that there's a Christmas shopping season going on. At best, one could say that it's Christmas and Halloween combined.
The dead are not referred to directly during the Ghost Month; instead, people use epithets such as “good brothers” (好兄弟). For instance, one might say that good brothers are wondering around. There are these urban legends that many of these good brothers and sisters are lonely and need companionship and often try to find ways to take the living away. That's the reason people in Taiwan advise not going to the beach during the ghost month: lonely ghosts might cause people to drown.
The movie A Chinese Ghost Story does have a scene taking place on the day of the dead, and one could see the female protagonist 小倩 traveling to the village in the broad daylight to collect a painting portrait of herself. (BTW, did you know that that she likes to play the guzheng and seduce people who visit a nearby temple? She coasts down the road like a ghost, but maybe she actually uses roller skates or roller blades. But things become complicated when a naive, innocent tax collector with the surname of 寧comes along. And watch out for 姥姥 . . . . . in mandarin, this terms means maternal grandmother, but it has acquired a notorious meaning thanks to the movie)
Chinese Valentine's Day falls on August 23. (c.f. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_Valentine%27s_Day ). Florists and chocolate factories in Asia love the fact that they get to have high peak sales from lovers twice a year (February 14th + Lunar Valentine's Day) instead of once a year.
Finally, there's the Ghost Month (c.f. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghost_Month ). On August 31st, the gates of Hades will open and the dead will be among us! People offer incense, food, and burnt offerings to the dead. Burnt offerings come in terms of paper mache fashioned into Greenbacks, Euros, I-Pads, Credit Cards, Debit Cards, 7-Elevens, I-phones, widescreen TV, BMWs, and maybe servants. As you can see, ghosts have become increasingly tech-savvy these days and exchange in foreign currency! (Many thanks to those who innovated the practice of burning paper mache people rather than offering human sacrifice!) Hypermarkets in Taiwan open 24 hours for about a week for people to purchase snacks, potato chips, chocolates, and other consumables as offering to the dead. If it weren't a festival to remember the dead, one would think that there's a Christmas shopping season going on. At best, one could say that it's Christmas and Halloween combined.
The dead are not referred to directly during the Ghost Month; instead, people use epithets such as “good brothers” (好兄弟). For instance, one might say that good brothers are wondering around. There are these urban legends that many of these good brothers and sisters are lonely and need companionship and often try to find ways to take the living away. That's the reason people in Taiwan advise not going to the beach during the ghost month: lonely ghosts might cause people to drown.
The movie A Chinese Ghost Story does have a scene taking place on the day of the dead, and one could see the female protagonist 小倩 traveling to the village in the broad daylight to collect a painting portrait of herself. (BTW, did you know that that she likes to play the guzheng and seduce people who visit a nearby temple? She coasts down the road like a ghost, but maybe she actually uses roller skates or roller blades. But things become complicated when a naive, innocent tax collector with the surname of 寧comes along. And watch out for 姥姥 . . . . . in mandarin, this terms means maternal grandmother, but it has acquired a notorious meaning thanks to the movie)
