2014, the year of the horse

        New Year’s Eve is coming! It is not only an important holiday, but also a time of reunion and thanksgiving. Enjoying the joyful atmosphere, everyone is excited at this moment. To celebrate Chinese New Year, there are many customs, superstitions and activities include:

                                                    

J  House cleaning:

Before New Year’s Day, the entire house should be cleaned in order to remove ill fortune and to make way for good incoming luck. In addition, there is a superstition that if you sweep the dirt out over the threshold, you will sweep one of the family away.

J  Spring Festival couplets:

Doors and windows will be decorated with red color couplets or paper-cuts. These decorations convey a New Year greeting, and the characters on the couplets usually symbolize “blessings”, “wealthy”, “longevity” or “happiness.”

J  Letting off firecrackers:

The origin of it is to scare away evil spirits with the loud noise let out by the firecrackers. Launching firecrackers is also a way to bring in the New Year and send out the old year. Besides, firecrackers with red papers are the most popular as red is auspicious. Also, it is believed that the more fireworks and noise there are, the more luck there will be in the New Year.

J  Red envelopes:

After the New Year’s Eve dinner, children will ask for red envelopes.

Usually, the old generation will not turn down such a request as it means that they will be out of luck by giving money in red envelopes to the unmarried children. Moreover, it is believed that if red envelopes are kept under the pillow and slept on for seven nights before opening will bring in good luck and fortune.

J  Shou Cui(守歲):

        On New Year’s Eve, families will stay up late and get together through the whole night. It is  also called “Longevity Night” because this custom represents the hope that parents will live longer.

UFOs

- Reading from an article.

        Do you believe in flying saucers?

        Appearing in sci-fi movies, it is universally understood that the “little green men and women” that fly UFOs have big black eyes and long fingers. Throughout history, there have been reports about unusual flying objects. In ancient times, such sightings were often regarded as angels, gods, or religious omens. And in the late 1940s, the term “UFO” and “flying saucer” were coined. To describe the UFOs, the writers often used adjectives such as inexplicable, unexplainable, unaccountable, mysterious, baffling, perplexing, and so on.

        Nevertheless, thousands of people claim to have seen “something strange in the sky.” These witness often state that the UFO was disk-shaped or cigar shaped, and moved at an incredible speed. Newspapers sometimes report the stories of individuals who claim to have been abducted by the aliens. These so-called “abductees” even say they were experiencing painful experiments that were performed by the aliens. However, many psychiatrists usually say that UFO abductions are just delusions of people who have mental problems.

        Do UFOs exist? No one can say for sure. Many of people witnessed UFOs were afraid to report what they saw because they feared that others will think they are unreliable or crazy. Moreover, most governments deny the existence of flying saucers. If you saw a UFO or were abducted by aliens, would you then become a silent believer or a public witness?

       

        If you are interested in aliens, I recommend you some movies such as <The Fourth Kind>第四類接觸, <Paul>我們撞到外星人, and <E.T.>外星人.

Here is the information:

http://blog.roodo.com/bluelqe/archives/11445107.html

http://app.atmovies.com.tw/movie/movie.cfm?action=filmdata&film_id=fpen11092026

http://app.atmovies.com.tw/movie/movie.cfm?action=filmdata&film_id=fEone0311652