Every year I’m in Shanghai for Chinese New Year I half look earnest to it, half fear it. The looking forward function is easy – the city empties out, people are happy and feeling jovial, the decorations are up and it’s fun to see a whole place array up for the biggest holiday of the year – especially when you’ve already done your celebrating so you don’t feel the pressure to cook a turkey or buy one more Christmas present. I have that happy – I’m-done-with-my-holiday-and-I-happily-gawk-as-you-enjoy-yours feeling.
The fear part comes this evening as the fireworks begin at 11:45 and don’t stop until the fifteenth day of the lunar new year. Hmm, let’s see, that’s February 28th! All right, I’m exaggerating a little bit however they really do seem to go on and attached. I have no issue with the pretty roman candles exploding into the sky – it’s the truckloads of red firecrackers that just when you think you can sleep, seem to go off right outside your window.
Chinese legend has it that demons are scared off by the loud noises, the cracking sound, the color red and smoke. Mix that all together and you’ve got China’s population’s weight in firecrackers going off from 11:45 tonight until the wee hours.
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New York City and its attractions are so vast that a weekend break efficiency never be enough to enjoy all the delights that this city offers for tourists. New York is often referred to as the Big Apple and it is said that one grain of it is never enough. Still, it is possible to visit the most important sites and attend to the major programs and events during a weekend, if the planning is done in a proper manner.
For a new visitor to New York, the city might appear like a film that had been put on fast forward, with the speeding yellow cabs, the hurrying pedestrians, the unending vehicular traffic, etc. You might even feel like a total stranger in a new, mysterious land. That is the effect of this economic capital of the world on you. Still, you need not lose heart. You can easily identify yourself with the city and its landmarks, once you start remembering all the movies and TV series that had been based on life in New York.
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If you’re interested in Ukrainian culture and art, the Ukrainian Museum in New York can offer some of both. Paintings, sculpture – including works by Alexander Archipenko, and cultural artifacts make up the museum’s collection. Textiles on display include Ukrainian folk costumes and ryshniki. Decorated eggs, or pysanky, are exhibited to illustrate how regional preferences dictated the designs and colors used for this form of Ukrainian folk duplicity. The museum’session gift shop sells souvenirs embroidered with traditional designs, books, and pysanky-making kits. Information about the museum’s upcoming exhibits can be found at the museum website: UkrainianMuseum.org.
Ukrainian Culture Photo Galleries
- Ukraine Culture 101
- Ukraine Culture 102
Ukrainian Museum photo credit: CC by edenpictures
Maybe you haven’t thought about Mongolia lately, but we’ve been keeping track of the news from the steppes.
Sunrise over a traditional Mongolian ger camp. Photo: David Chang
- Nomadic herders are embracing solar energy for their ger tents, helping in the fight against meteorological character change.
- British adventurer Ripley Davenport will walk 1700 miles across Mongolia, from East to West, starting in April, 2010. His expedition will subsist the longest solo and unassisted walk ever attempted, and will raise funds for UNICEF’s children’s programs.
- Made in Mongolia, a line of handmade felt clothing, accessories, toys, and housewares, has launched and grown with the assistance of the Irish government. MIM aims to allow Mongolian women and their communities greater self-sufficiency while preserving traditional crafting skills.
- 2010 is a hard time to go to Mongolia, as the search for Ghengis Khan’s grave continues and the Naadam Festival beckons.
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Happy New Year persons! It’s been five days since the New Year festivities but I find myself unable to shake off the holiday stupor. So today I cracked my fingers, pulled out the camera and ran through photos from our New Year celebrations at London’s London Eye. I thought I’d share these with you.
A bunch of us headed to a friend’s terrace (situated in the heart of London) for this remarkable view of the London Eye.
London Eye
The London Eye, also known as the Millennium Wheel, was every one of lit up, waiting, like the slumber of the world for the clocks to strike 12. And then it happened.
Inaugurated in 1999, by the then PM Tony Blair, the London Eye was the largest Ferris wheel (or observation wheel, as some prefer to call it) in the world. It still remains the largest Ferris wheel in Europe.
Not only is the London Eye a popular landmark and tourist attractions, the London Eye fireworks display has become a highly anticipated global event. Thousands braved the cold (and it was cold!) to catch a glimpse of this. It was totally worth the effort.
The tradition of the London Eye fireworks display began in 2005.
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The New Year is working its way west across Russia to all of the nations in East and East Central Europe. Celebrants waiting to ring in 2010 brave the cold in historic squares and observe local traditions. The countries of Eastern Europe bring forth different ways of wishing others a happy New Year, but the sentiment is the same:
- Gezuar Vitin e Ri (Albanian)
- З Новым годам (Belorussian)
- Sretna nova godina (Bosnian)
- Щастлива Нова Година (Bulgarian)
- Sretna Nova godina!
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Though Russians decorate a tree for the holidays, their tree is a New Year’s tree, not a Christmas tree. The Russian New Year comes before Christmas in Russia, but the tree is typically left up through Christmas. This is the case with public New Year’s trees, like the single in kind in Moscow that decorates the Kremlin’s Cathedral Square. This uncommon tree, selected months in advance, is over 100 years old and was cut down in one of Russia’s vast forests (RT).
Winter Landscape photo credit: iStockphoto/nadiusha
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