Seasons of love… the month to celebrate love…

1. Seasons of love… the month to celebrate love… • Spring Festival 春節 • St. Valentine’s Day情人節 • The Lantern Festival元宵節

2. Spring Festival 春節 Arriving on the first day of the first lunar month (usually late January to mid February), Chinese New Year is by far the largest, and most festive, holiday of the Chinese calendar.

3. Spring Festival 春節 New Year’s Eve Dinner 團年飯 The New Year's Eve dinner is the most important dinner for Chinese. Normally this is the family reunion dinner, especially for those with family member away from home.

4. Spring Festival 春節 Fireworks燒爆竹 Fireworks are used to drive away the evil in China. Right after the 12:00PM of the New Year's Eve, fireworks will be launched to celebrate the coming of the New Year as well as driven away the evil. It is believed that the person who launched the first Fireworks in the New Year will get good luck.

5. Spring Festival 春節 Shou Sui守歲 Shou Sui means after the New Year's Eve dinner, family member will normally stay awake during the night. According to tales and legends, there was a mythical beast called the "Year". At the night of New Year's Eve, the "Year" will come out to harm people, animals, and proprieties. Later people found that the "Year" is afraid of red colour, fire, and loud sound. Therefore, at the New Year’s Eve night, people will launch fireworks and stay awakes the whole night to fend of the “Year”.

6. Spring Festival 春節 Red Packets紅封包 Red packet is a red envelope with money in it, range from one to a few thousand Chinese Yuan. Usually the red packet is given by adults, especially married couple, and elderly to young children in the New Year days. It was believed that the money in the red packet will suppress the evil from the children, keep the children healthy, and long living.

7. Spring Festival 春節 New Year Markets 年宵市場 At the New Years days, a temporarily market will be setup mainly selling New Year goods, such as clothing, fireworks, decoration, foods, small arts, etc. The market is usually decorated with a large amount of lanterns.

8. Spring Festival 春節 Decoration佈置 Most of the decorations are red in color. The most popular New Year decorations are upside down fu, dui lian, lantern, year paint, papercutting, door god, etc..

9. St. Valentine’s Day 情人節 • It is about showing someone you really care, and that you have made or found a present for them that only your intimate knowledge of their personality could have known about. It's about that connection between two people, a connection that money can't buy.

10. St. Valentine’s Day 情人節 • Valentine Cards Sending your loved one a card on Valentine's day has been with us properly since the 1800's when commercial valentines were first introduced. Early examples were expensive card creations in lace and satin. Cheaper printed cards slowly became popular, with humorous anti-Valentines joining the romantic cards.

11. St. Valentine’s Day 情人節 • Flower Language The flowers you send your Valentine also carry a meaning … Roses Messages Red - true love White - I love you not Yellow - jealousy Pink - innocent love and happiness Orange - I love you vigorously Purple - I will love you forever Wild rose - uncontrollable desire Moss rose - I admire you from afar

12. St. Valentine’s Day 情人節 • Flower Language The flowers you send your Valentine also carry a meaning … Daisy – innocence Forget-me-not – true love and constancy Sunflower – warmth of feeling Lily – purity Tulip – a declaration of powerful love (red), hopeless love (yellow)

13. St. Valentine’s Day 情人節 • Lovebirds It was a popular belief that the birds choose their mates on the feast of Valentine - their patron saint. It is also traditionally believed that a girl is able to tell what sort of man she will marry by the first bird she sees on St. Valentine's day.

14. St. Valentine’s Day 情人節 • Food of love Chocolate - contains natural stimulants - chemicals thought to effect neurotransmitters in the brain, producing passionate feelings Champagne - the bubbles take the alcohol straight into the bloodstream

15. The Lantern Festival 元宵節 • Held on the 15th day of the first lunar month, the Lantern Festival signifies the end of Chinese New Year festivities. People go out to appreciate colorful lanterns; do lantern riddles, fireworks, lion dance, stilt-walking etc, and the most important, eating “ Yuan Xiao (rice glue ball)”.

16. The Lantern Festival 元宵節 • Yuanxiao 湯圓 “Yuan Xiao” is also called “Tang Yuan”, made from glutinous rice flour, which is mixed with a small amount of water to form balls and is then cooked and served in boiling water. Since “Tang Yuan” sounds similar as the Chinese word “Tuan Yuan”, which means “reunion”, it is used by people to show their sentiment of missing, and the wish of happiness of the family.

17. The Lantern Festival 元宵節 • Lighting coloured lanterns彩燈 “Lantern” called “Deng” in Chinese, it is similar as “Deng” which means “boy” or “man”; so women will walk under Lanterns in “Lantern Festival”, to pray to have a boy when they get pregnant.

18. The Lantern Festival 元宵節 • Guessing riddles猜燈謎 Guessing lantern riddles" is an essential part of the Festival. Lantern owners write riddles on a piece of paper and post them on the lanterns. If visitors have solutions to the riddles, they can pull the paper out and go to the lantern owners to check their answer. If they are right, they will get a little gift. The activity emerged during people's enjoyment of lanterns in the Song Dynasty (960-1279). As riddle guessing is interesting and full of wisdom, it has become popular among all social strata.